University of Arkansas Student-Run Newspaper Since 1906Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 Vol. 110, No. 18

PAGE 2

Retail Lab Opens in Harmon GarageWalton College created a retail lab to engage students of multiple majors.

PAGE 6 PAGE 9

Alumnus Opens Mexican Restaurant2015 graduate Omar Kasim opened Con Quesos on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Jan. 8.

New Face of Razorback VolleyballNew head volleyball coach, Jason Watson, hopes to build strong relationships with his new team.

Hours before showtime Jan. 17, shivering fans lined up outside of George’s Majestic Lounge on Dickson Street to hear Fayetteville-based band Backroad Anthem pay tribute to their former bandmate and UA graduate Craig Strickland.

“This is our hometown; this is where we all got started … We went back and forth between ‘Should we still play the show or should we cancel it?’ but we decided that Craig would want us to go on,” said Brandon Ro-bold, Backroad bass player and vocalist.

Back in November, Back-road booked the gig at George’s on Jan. 16 but added a second show scheduled for Jan. 17 after the first sold out. They changed the show name to Backroad Anthem & Friends in honor of Strickland, joined by fellow mu-sicians including Barrett Baber, season 9 third place winner of The Voice and former Fayette-ville High School teacher.

“It’s been awesome to see (Backroad) grow and rise,” Ba-ber said. “It’s an honor to be

here remembering Craig and the awesome guy and songwrit-er he was.”

The second show sold out in record-selling time for George’s, Robold said.

“The first show the band ever sold out was here at George’s, so we thought this would be a great place to pay tribute to Craig, his life and role in this band,” Robold said.

On Dec. 26, Strickland set out for a duck hunting trip in northern Oklahoma with friend Chase Morland dur-ing a developing winter storm. Two days later, authorities dis-covered Morland’s body, their capsized boat and Strickland’s dog at Kaw Lake in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Strickland’s wife Helen Strickland updated fam-ily, friends and fans during the search for her husband using social media.

She posted photos of them together with captions express-ing her love for him, tweeted Bible verses and thanked fol-lowers for the prayers and en-couragement. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol found Strick-land’s body Jan. 4, lying on the ground in a tree and brush area 75 feet from the water. News of the 29 year-old’s death spread

through local news reports, as well as national news coverage from sources including CNN and People. Helen Strickland confirmed the news and shared her thoughts on Instagram.

“The night of the accident

he had fought his way out of the water and up a hill before the stages of hypothermia set in. He experienced no pain in his final moments and simply felt like he was falling asleep,” the caption read. Strickland graduated from

the UofA with a degree in mar-keting, and in 2012 he became the first star host of The Arkan-sas CW Channel and formed the six-member band Backroad Anthem.

With Strickland as lead vo-

calist alongside bandmate Toby Freeman, Backroad released its first EP in May 2013 which reached #24 on the iTunes Top Country Music Charts.

Backroad Anthem member Toby Freeman performs Jan. 17 at George’s Majestic Lounge to honor late bandmate Craig Strickland. Strickland’s body was found Jan. 4 after he went on a hunting trip in northern Oklahoma.

Andrea Johnson Staff Photographer

continued on page 6

Backroad Anthem honors late bandmate, will continue playingAndrea JohnsonContributing Reporter

Page 7

StudentsStruggle to

be Healthy

Committee discusses safety fee

Following the proposal for a new fire department closer to the UA campus, the Town and Gown Advisory Committee will continue evaluating ways to fund it, said the Associated Student Government president.

A new fire department was brought to the committee’s at-tention because they wanted to shorten the response time to campus, said Tanner Bone, the ASG president and one of the UA student-representatives on the committee.

In the fall semester, a stu-dent safety fee was proposed to help with the costs of a new fire department, Bone said.

“It was met with concern by all of us who are there to represent the university,” he said. “This fee would have es-sentially been on the backs of students.”

After the October meet-ing, a special task force was created to “discuss alterna-tives to the student fee, but that still addressed the con-cern of safety and security,” Bone said.

However, there was a sub-committee meeting Nov. 23 to discuss the issue, accord-ing to the meeting minutes from the committee meeting the week before Nov. 16.

The meeting comprised of an in-depth deliberation on

the costs of land to build the fire department on, opera-tion services and fire truck equipment, said graduate student Alex Marino.

“I attended the subcom-mittee meeting on Nov. 23,” Marino said. “There were no student representatives pres-ent.”

From the beginning of the meeting to the end, UA of-ficials denied suggestions to charge students with any sort of fee to fund the new proj-ect, Marino said.

“The fire department opened by saying what they wanted from the university,” he said.

The department wanted the UofA to give at little to no cost university-owned land and to buy a fire truck and replace it regularly, Marino said.

This fire truck would be the “biggest and fanciest fire truck this city has ever had,” Marino said.

The fire department’s ar-gument was that they needed

a ladder to reach the top of the stadium.

“On top of that, they wanted a student fee that would then fully pay for the operating costs of this facility,” Marino said.

The total projected start-up costs would be around $8 mil-lion, with the estimated yearly operations cost a little over $1 million, according to a presen-tation by Fayetteville Fire Chief David Dayringer.

Meleah PerezSenior Staff Reporter

Andre Kissel Staff PhotographerFire Station 2, located on Garland Avenue, responds to emergency calls at the UofA. The Town and Gown Advisory Committee has submitted a proposal to build a new fire department specifically for the university.

Trustees to vote on stadium renovations

Razorback Athletics is seeking approval from the UA Board of Trustees for $160 million worth of renovations to the Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, accord-ing to a university press re-lease.

The proposed project will include a full makeover of the north end of the stadium, in-cluding updates to existing areas, the end zone and a new Broyles Athletic Center.

“After analyzing extensive information produced as part of our feasibility study and gathering feedback from our donors and fans, we are ready to move forward with the next step in a major renovation at Donald W. Reynolds Razor-back Stadium,” said Jeff Long, vice chancellor and director of athletics.

The goal of the renovations is to create a full connection of the stadium from the north to the south and from the east to the west, Long said.

“Our fans are loyal and passionate and we want to provide them an on-campus stadium as distinctive as the Razorback itself,” he said.

The north addition will in-clude new suites, loge boxes,

club seats and club areas. The east and west concourses will connect with the north con-course to allow flow of patrons around the stadium’s entirety, as well as provide new conces-sions and restrooms. Addition-al and expanded entrances will also help improve patron flow. The football team will also re-ceive a new game day locker room, training room and pre and postgame support rooms.

The stadium updates will include new elevators at the northeast and northwest cor-ners of the stadium to access club areas and upper level seating.

The Broyles Center will be affected by the larger north end zone project, and will be rebuilt in the new north end. The Broyles Center will still house the administrative offic-es, merchandise and the Hall of Champions.

Some students are on board with the new stadium plans.

“I think it’ll help out the game day atmosphere for sure,” junior Logan Nelson said. “It’ll make it easier for me to get in and out of the sta-dium.”

Other students are unsure because of the crowds on game days.

Matt VigodaAsst. Sports Editor

continued on page 3 continued on page 4

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Page 2 Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

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Walton College retail lab to open in Harmon Garage after Spring Break

The Walton College of Busi-ness will be opening the McMil-lon Family Retail Innovation and Technology Lab in an emp-ty space of the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage the week after Spring Break, a UA official said.

The lab will feature sections of retail space that people from the community and university will be able to interact with, said Sue Sedberry, director of the lab. Anyone may reach out to Sed-berry and her team of students with their ideas for testable retail products, which could be any-thing from refrigerators to cell phones.

After the ideas have been pitched, students from many disciplines will work together to produce the spaces, she said.

“It’s a largely interdisciplin-ary project meant to reach out across campus,” Sedberry said.

Business students will confer on budgets and operation man-agement, students from interior design will aid in designing each space and engineering students may help with the building pro-cess. Each retail area will have different lighting, decor, paint and music, among other details.

Visitors can come through the spaces as if the lab were a museum, Sedberry said. Each retail experiment will be open for four to six weeks, and ap-proximately three experiments will be open at one time.

After one round of spaces completes its trial, new spaces will be built to replace them, she said. It will be a rolling process. The lab, if successful, could re-main open for years.

The expected start-up cost of this project is $75,000, Sedberry said. These costs will be covered by a donation from Doug Mc-Millon, Wal-Mart’s CEO.

The need for this project stems from Sedberry’s desire to prepare students for life after graduation. Oftentimes, stu-dents emerge from college un-prepared to enter the job market, but this project will give UA stu-

dents an edge on the competi-tion, she said.

“We need to be focused on delivering leaders of the future,”Sedberry said. “With Wal-Mart, the world’s largest everything in this area, students have job opportunities in our community. They just need to be prepared for them.”

The retail lab will help UA students come out with more than a degree, she said. Along with the experience of working in a real retail environment, stu-dents will be working with retail data analytics made available to the UofA by PepsiCo. Working with professional level equip-

ment is part of what makes this a forward-thinking project, Sed-berry said.

Liz Tanner, president of Stu-dents of Retail Excellence, said she thinks that the lab will di-rectly help Walton College stu-dents after graduation.

“I’ve seen Wal-Mart’s and Microsoft’s retail innovation labs, so it’s interesting to have something of that caliber here,” Tanner said. “It will provide a learning experience for our students that isn’t available any-where else.”

MBA student Alejandra Gonzalez is also working with the lab.

“I really like the retail in-dustry and the innovation of it,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like the lab will give me insight into new opportunities and help build my project man-agement skills.”

The retail lab will also ben-efit the UofA, she said. This type of environment is rare on college campuses, so potential students may see it as a benefit of coming to the UofA, and cur-rent students will see it as a rea-son to stay.

“Anything we can do to at-tract students and retain grad-uates is a great opportunity,” Sedberry said.

Andrea BreckenridgeStaff Reporter

Jarrett Hobbs Staff PhotographerThe McMillon Family Retail Innovation and Technology Lab is in the Harmon Avenue Parking Garage where the old Razorback shop was located. The retail lab was created by Walton College officials.

University Housing bans hoverboard use on campus

University Housing sent out an email Dec. 18 in-forming students that a university policy involving self-balancing scooters, or “hoverboards,” had been im-plemented.

“Under policy 722.0 hov-erboards may not be used in any university facility,” the email read.

Policy 722.0 itself, which is available for reading on the UA Division of Finance and Administration website, ex-tends to other forms of per-sonal transportation, as well. This includes in-line skates, roller skates and skateboards, alongside hoverboards them-selves.

The policy bans all use of those items inside all univer-sity buildings, all multi-level or interior parking structures and outdoor parking lots, all campus streets and service drives located on, running through, adjacent or contigu-ous to, the campus and any additional areas restricted by signs.

Policy 722.0 also states that the charging of hoverboards is prohibited on campus, and any violation will result in a writ-ten warning and/or a referral to the Division of Student Af-fairs’ Office of Student Stan-dards and Conduct.

“Our overall concern is the safety of our students in the residence halls and apart-ments,” said Florence Johnson, executive director of the Uni-versity Housing Department.

University Housing of-ficials looked into policies regarding electronic skate-boards, or ‘hoverboards,’ after many news stories of explosive fires were reported late last year, Johnson said.

Hoverboards are actually two-wheeled, self-balancing scooter devices that do not levitate. “Hoverboard” is what the device is called col-loquially, rather than official-ly, according to the Popular Science website.

Hoverboards are flamma-ble because of the lithium-powered battery that they run on, which can overheat and catch fire. That flam-mability is what is causing so many airlines and colleges to ban them, according to Con-sumer News and Business Channel’s website.

“A lot of people don’t know about lithium batter-ies,” said freshman Christine Carroll, “So they don’t know that you shouldn’t leave them plugged in overnight, or that you need to drain the battery regularly for it to stay opera-tional.”

Over 30 colleges have com-pletely or partially banned hoverboards since December, according to USA Today’s Col-lege website.

Housing officials consulted with Campus Fire Marshal Wayne Brashear, the Risk Management Office, Legal Counsel and the Division of Student Affairs before arriving at a decision. They also spoke with officials from housing departments across the nation who were responding to the “potential hazard,” Johnson said.

University Housing has also wireless printers and routers in facilities with Wi-Fi, Johnson said.

Even students who do not own hoverboards have mixed opinions on the devices, as some find the hoverboards dangerous, while others see them as an inconvenience at most.

“I think the hoverboard ban is the best solution when it comes to increasing the safety of the riders and those around them,” senior Zachary Winn said. “You obviously need to have a good sense of balance to operate a hover board, so, if used with inadequate practice, they can be dangerous.”

Carol said she does not mind the restrictions, but she recognizes the obstacle for students who do own hover-boards.

“I don’t know if a complete ban is necessary,” she said. “And I think that if a point in time comes where people know more about hover-boards, or they become safer, then they might not need to stay banned.”

Jordan WhiteleyStaff Reporter

“Our overall concern is the safety of our students and the residence halls and apartments.”

Florence JohnsonExecutive Housing Director

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 Page 3

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Challenge scholarship restructured

The Academic Challenge Scholarship is reducing fund-ing to incoming freshmen in fall 2016.

The total amount of fund-ing students receive over the course of their college career will remain the same, but the amount that students re-ceive for each year level will change, said Elyse Price, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education financial aid manager.

At a four-year institu-tion, freshmen will receive $1,000, sophomores will re-ceive $4,000, juniors will re-ceive $4,000 and seniors will receive $5,000. At a two-year institution, freshmen will re-ceive $1,000, and sophomores will receive $3,000, said Lisa Smith, the ADHE communi-cations and outreach coordi-nator.

The Academic Challenge Scholarship is a program funded mainly by the Arkan-sas Scholarship Lottery. It is designed to assist citizens of Arkansas in earning a higher education, according to the ADHE financial aid website.

“I personally like it be-cause it motivates me to do well in school to not only get the scholarship and the money, but to get more mon-ey each year,” said Ashley Wilson, a Fayetteville High School senior.

These changes affect only students starting school in fall 2016, not those who al-ready are using the Challenge Scholarship in school. It will not affect transfer students or anyone who already has the scholarship, Price said.

“The award amounts changed for incoming fresh-men; this change will not af-fect current students receiv-ing the Arkansas Academic Challenge,” Smith said.

In past years, students re-ceived $2,000 in their fresh-man year, $3,000 in their sophomore year, $4,000 in their junior year and $5,000 in their senior year, accord-ing to the ADHE financial aid website.

Madeline Hart, a Benton-ville High School senior, said she thinks the scholarship amount should have stayed at $1,000 per semester, giv-ing the students a greater advantage to work harder in school knowing that they will receive money if they keep a good grade point average.

“I do also agree with the reduction in some aspects because I am well aware that some student do not stay in

college more than one year,” Hart said.

Act 1105 of 2015 is the rea-son for the change in funding for each year level, Smith said.

Changes in academic qualifications will also affect the number of students who receive the challenge scholar-ship. Whereas in past years students needed a 19 on the ACT, a 2.5 GPA and comple-tion of Smart Core; now the only requirement is for student to have an ACT score of 19, Price said.

“I would say we probably have around 350 students who will apply to the UofA and with the new qualifying bench-marks – an ACT of a 19 only – most of them will qualify for

the scholarship,” Lesli Zeagler, Fayetteville High School col-lege and career counselor said.

In addition to this, all other state financial programs within ADHE are enforcing stricter requirements for stu-dents requesting to put their scholarships on hold. Recently students were able to hold their scholarships for up to four semesters; now students have to give a reason as well as documentation for proof of their leave, Price said.

“I don’t think the amounts will impact the number apply-ing at all,” Zeagler said. “I think the new qualifying standards will increase the number of kids who will apply and actu-ally receive the money.”

Emily PudilStaff Reporter

Elysa Barsotti News DesignerThis year, officials redistributed the scholarship amount that Arkansas students receive from the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship.

The proposed plan for the public safety fee was to create a fee per credit hour to split between the Fayetteville Fire Department and UAPD, ac-cording to the presentation.

Under the plan, both departments would be en-hanced, which would also bring in more revenue, ac-cording to the presentation.

Mike Johnson, the assis-tant vice chancellor, was the prime person who repre-sented the UofA and came to the meeting well-researched in prices and depreciation rates for several fire vehicles, as well as the number of calls students had made to the fire department, Marino said.

Negotiations moved into real estate options when the department made it clear that they did not want to take land away from the taxpayers but rather from the school, he said.

“The gist of what the fire departments argued is that students and the university contribute nothing to the fire department,” Marino said.

Johnson was quick to refute this idea by reiterat-ing that students pay rent to landlords who use that same money to pay for property taxes, Marino said.

“Plus, we’re buying stuff from the city, so we’re con-tributing a ton of sales tax,” Marino said. “There was complete disagreement on every number you could bring into the argument.”

After being pressed, the fire department said the new department would not be dedicated to campus but to a section of Fayetteville that they do not reach very well, Marino said.

They said they wanted the school to pay because they

saw the school as “a drain on city resources,” Marino said.

Johnson used examples of the UofA paying for roads, gifting land and building infrastructure, including building water lines, which the fire department uses to fight fires, Marino said.

“My wife owns a small business,” Marino said. “That small business thrives be-cause of the university, so I believe the university is the greatest asset to the city.”

At the meeting Jan. 11, the special task force’s fund-ing proposal was given to the committee but was denied, said Bone, who attended the January meeting.

“The Town and Gown Committee, at this point, has been unable to agree on a formal recommendation for the City Council,” Bone said. “So we will continue deliberations in the coming meetings.”

The student safety fee is completely off the table, Bone said.

“The fee isn’t going to happen because of Mike Johnson,” Marino said. “But we are going to end up pay-ing in land and in capital and we’re going to get hit with that somehow.”

The Town and Gown Ad-visory Committee meets the third monday of every other month in the Engineering Research Center, according to the City of Fayetteville’s website.

The Town and Gown Advisory Committee was formed in 2013 and is a fo-rum for city officials, UA officials and UA student leaders to collaborate on mutually relevant issues, ac-cording to the City of Fay-etteville’s website.

The next meeting will be March 21 at 3:00 p.m., Bone said.

Student safety fee off the table, ASG president says

continued from page 1

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Page 4 Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

Choir to travel, perform in Belgium

The UA Schola Cantorum choir will tour Belgium for the first time in May, as part of a biennial program within the choir.

The Schola Cantorum, Latin for “School of Singers,” was founded in 1957, by Richard Brothers, a professor of music. It is comprised of 32 male and female singers, both in undergraduate and graduate programs on campus, ac-cording to the UA website.

The choir will tour the country, per-forming in various cities along the way. In the last trip, the choir went to Puerto Rico, said Stephen Caldwell, director of Choral Activities.

Part of his job is to reach out into the greater international community, he said.

These trips are treated in the same way as study abroad trips, however, they are not for credit. Nevertheless, they are organized through the Study Abroad Office.

“Each of these tours are concert tours; it is the primary reason why we do this,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said he has been work-ing for the past two years to schedule concerts in Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Flanders and Maastricht.

For the 10 days they will be there, they will have six formal concerts sched-uled, and a variety of smaller, more in-formal singing opportunities, he said.

Because the Tournai Cathedral is un-dergoing renovations, the choir cannot perform there, he said.

“Instead, we’re going to give a con-cert in a church across the town square, but we are going to sing informally in the church amongst the construction,” Caldwell said.

The choir will do this “for the oppor-tunity to sing in that space, to sing some music that was written for that space,” he said.

Additionally, the choir will perform at the World War I Monument in Flan-ders. This not a formal concert, but members get together in a nice space and will sing a few pieces for that space, Caldwell said.

“Every time we do this, passersby stop and listen to us sing one or two pieces and everyone goes on their way,” he said.

Additionally, the Schola Cantorum will be performing at the universities in Antwerp and Maastricht.

For each student in the Schola Can-torum, the total written cost is about $3,000, and students pay a variety of amounts. Students going on the trip do some fundraising, Caldwell said.

Students did a silent auction Dec. 10,

2015 as part of the last concert of the year, in which they raised about $500.

“It all adds up over the course of a year’s worth of student fundraising,” Caldwell said.

The university department picks up as much as it can. The cost for the whole trip for 38 people is almost $110,000, which is not a cost the university can ab-sorb entirely, he said.

At the end of the year, the choir ends up with several thousand dollars that can help decrease the overall cost per student. Another option is to start add-ing things to the trip such as more meals or group activities, and the students will decide how they will distribute their own fundraising that they did this year, Caldwell said.

Senior member Zachary Winn said he is looking forward to singing in unique performance spaces.

“We have several Renaissance piec-es written by composers who lived in what is now Belgium, and the churches which they composed the music for are still standing,” he said. “While we are in

Belgium we will have the opportunity to perform certain pieces.”

Winn also went on the trip to Puerto Rico in 2014, when the choir traveled to San Juan and Ponce to perform in churches, universities and schools.

“I remember that the locals loved our rendition of their national anthem, ‘La Boriqueña’,” he said.

The Schola Cantorum participated in fundraising events at Zaxby’s last fall, held bake sales in the music buildings and sold Schola Cantorum merchandise, Winn said.

“Personally, I’ve been working for the churches as a freelance vocalist and do-ing odd jobs to get the money together,” Winn said.

Junior member Erin Horner said she is looking forward to singing in cathe-drals and visiting the Bastogne War Mu-seum. This is her first trip abroad with Schola Cantorum, and the first time in 10 years the choir will visit Europe.

“Dr. Caldwell picked Belgium because the country itself is divided into differ-ent language regions; it’s like visiting a couple of countries in one,” Horner said.

Kaitlyn AkelStaff Reporter

Courtesy of Christopher Barnett Members of the Schola Cantorum choir will perform in various Bel-gian cities in May, the choir director said.

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“It’s already a pretty busy place on game days,” freshman Kensley Knotts said. “But I’m hoping the renovations will help solve that problem.”

Season ticket and single game ticket price adjustments will also be implemented. Bonds will be amortized using athletic rev-enues generated from the sta-dium’s income. No university funds will be required to com-plete the renovations, according to a press release sent Monday.

Board of Trustees to vote on stadium renovations

continued from page 1

Courtesy PhotoRazorback Athletics proposed a new design for Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The design will be presented to the Board of Trustees on Jan. 27.

IT officials to launch new Wi-Fi project

University Information Technology Service officials announced a new initiative to enhance technical services across the campus Tuesday.

The goal of the project, which is called Achieve IT: Excellence in Technology, is to bolster the existing IT frame-work so that the UofA “can be positioned for the future to pursue other IT or technology projects that will help us com-pete nationally,” said Chris Mc-Coy, chief information officer of IT Services. The initiative is part of the UofA’s larger goal of becoming a Top 50 Public Research University by 2021, according to the initiative’s website, which was released Tuesday.

To that end, Achieve IT has assembled workgroups made up of members hand-picked by the CIO for various proj-ects, according to the website.

One of these projects, called “Network Everywhere,” will focus on implementing Wi-Fi in 30 buildings “focused on academic spaces and locations where students congregate,

such as the Union, the library,” by next fall, McCoy said.

“It’s a very aggressive proj-ect,” he said. “It’s now in the stage where we’re actually go-ing to be implementing the in-stallations of the access points throughout the buildings.”

The network project would not establish new networks similar to the 2G and the 5G networks but rather expand the capacity of both networks so that there are fewer dead spots, McCoy said. IT officials expect to have funding for the project next year, and after finishing the 30 buildings, the rest of the funding will go to installing Wi-Fi in other loca-tions.

A roadmap of the other projects, such as “Classroom Technology Everywhere” and “Service Desk Everywhere,” can be found at Achieve IT’s website. The progress of all the active projects can also be viewed on the website. As Achieve IT progresses, IT will update the website so that each project has its own page to show its progress, said Starla Stensaas, director of commu-nication for IT Services.

The workgroups that han-dle the projects will post their work online.

Justin BarfieldStaff Reporter

Adams Pryor Photo EditorHoward Brill, Arkansas Supreme Court chief justice, moderated a panel Jan. 22 to examine the history of changes to the Arkansas constitution.

Howard Brill Back at the Hill

Opinion Editor: TJ Stallbaumer

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper Page 5Thursday, Jan. 27, 2016

Bridging the Digital Divide: The False Consensus Bias

In the realm of psychology, there exists something called the “False Consensus Bias.” It refers to the idea people tend to have, that everyone else is like them—not in a physical sense, but rather, that others think the same way you do.

This bias manifests itself in many ways. For me, it often comes in the realm of politics, which falls under the greater umbrella of hot-button issues. I find myself thinking, ‘immi-gration reform is such a nec-essary thing—who are these backwards hillbillies so set on thinking that if we allow other people into this country, it will fall to pieces?’ Often, I follow that thought by engaging one of my equally liberal friends in a spirited conversation about backwards people, and their backwards ways of thinking.

This is a terribly dangerous precedent.

I have, over the course of many years, developed a mind-set that there exists some ob-jective “other side,” comprised of a group of people whose ideas and systems of belief are so different from my own that they are likely to be incorrect in both their assumptions and their assertions.

I have tunnel vision. And I am not alone.

In fact, the immensity with which we regularly share our opinions online may be par-tially to blame, for crafting a generation that, as we dis-cussed last week, prides itself on technological literacy, and openness/liberalism—but con-sistently fails to exercise the “openness” aspect when con-fronted with views that chal-lenge our own.

Millennials tend to think that we, as a generational grouping, are wide open—when in fact, many of us may be closed shut.

This “us versus them” at-titude is counter productive, because it leads away from the sort of political discourse that this country so deeply needs in order to move forward.

And to blame for this, many believe, is the Internet. Millen-nials fill a sort of self-curator roll online, which often leads us inevitably to some form of the False Consensus Bias we discussed above.

In a journal article about the affects of old and new media on political discourse in times of duress, authors Egbunike and Olorunnisola have this to say:

“While movements may believe that they are adjusting the asymmetrical media imbal-ance, they may inadvertently be talking only to themselves. Mass self-communication oc-curs when similar minds on the same media platform speak about the same things, thus creating a digital echo chamber. This may create a false impres-sion that the social media have

attained an influential public message or media space.”

Overwhelmingly, many millennials like to believe that they are an instrumental part in restoring balance to a world skewed by unfair mass media that, for example, pays sole at-tention to Hillary Clinton at the expense of Bernie Sand-ers. And so, in order to combat that, we take to the web, where we share, like and re-pin all things Bernie at such a frenzied rate, that it begins to look like Bernie is bae and all other poli-ticians are but ants beneath his boots.

This sort of selective sharing is interesting, because it could be viewed as supporting a can-didate, or reaching for the digi-tal approval of all your friends. No matter how much one wishes to deny, getting “likes” is exciting, and Bernie videos get likes. Once we begin sharing caricatures that openly mock the “other side,” is when we have transitioned from support to ridicule and are contributing openly to our echo-chamber.

This should concern us all, because it could mean that the Internet’s ability to automati-cally give to us those things we want to see could be se-verely weakening our collec-tive worldview, by making it challenging to even entertain ideas that vary slightly from our own, and instead dismiss them as unintelligent, or unin-formed.

Moreover, the echo-cham-ber we create is influenced by a vast number of things that can lead us to believe something false about the beliefs of oth-ers. Frederick DeBoer puts it beautifully:

“[The Internet] encourages people to collapse any distinc-tion between their work life, their social life, and their polit-ical life. ‘Hey, that person who tweets about the TV shows I like also dislikes injustice,’ which over time becomes, ‘I can identify an ally by the TV shows they like.’ The fact that you can mine a Rihanna video for political content becomes, in that vague internety way, the sense that people who don’t see political content in Rihanna’s music aren’t on your side.”

In this way, we, as a genera-tion, are becoming more divid-ed—and more sensitive—every day.

And this isn’t solely a digital phenomenon.

The other day, I heard a friend remark very quietly that their Republicanism was some-thing they never discuss openly on campus. Though I made no further inquiry, it seems likely that this friend, who I know to be intelligent and capable of conversation, keeps those views hidden because the ma-jority of people here would dis-agree vehemently with them.

Isn’t it amazing, that the generation that wants to stamp out bullying, quit cigarettes, end college loan debt and stop global warming, is the same one that is slowly becoming blind to varying perspectives?

TJ StallbaumerOpinion Editor

New Years Resolutions: The reasons the HPER is so full

Before starting college last semester, I heard many tales of the “freshman 15”. My friends in college came home for summer break complain-ing nonstop about how fat they were because of college. After hearing their horror stories of becoming fat I knew I couldn’t let this be me. I just figured I would go to the gym most days, and my life would be fine and dandy.

Up until this week, it was. After moving back into

my lavish mansion (Yocum) on Monday I figured I should hit the gym. What I encoun-tered next was terrifying. I walked into the HPER to do my usual workout and was overwhelmed by the amount of people in the gym. Every single person who attended

the UofA was in the HPER attempting to get swole. I looked to my right and saw a man furiously bicep curling the bar in the squat rack. Ev-ery female was on a treadmill running off the kale salad she ate for lunch and hoping they could lose 84 pounds before spring break.

Why was this happening? It then hit me that it was 2016. A new year! Everyone in Fay-etteville had decided to stop drinking eight beers a day, and start going to the gym for at least six hours daily. It was difficult to get a good work-out in with all the newfound fitness gurus surrounding me, but I knew I would only have to deal with this crowd for about a week before everyone went back to drinking eight beers and watching Netflix instead of hitting the gym.

As I sat there staring at the

man who was still doing bicep curls in the squat rack, I be-came irritated. Not only was I irritated at the man in front of me for not knowing what a squat rack was, I was mad at him because I knew by this time next week he would no longer be coming to the gym.

Every New Year’s millions of Americans make these grandiose promises to them-selves that they rarely keep. Why is that? Why is it that we hold everyone else account-able except for ourselves? The gym may have been an-noyingly overcrowded, but at least people were doing what they promised themselves they would do.

It seems that when things become challenging we shove the promises we made to our-selves under the rug. We don’t do that to other people. When we make a promise with

someone else, we keep that promise because someone else is holding us account-able.

When we are left to our own devices, we simply let ourselves down, and break the promise we made to our-selves. Don’t get me wrong, I think New Year’s resolutions are utterly ridiculous. But, if you’re going to commit to something you might as well go at it full fledged.

Stop letting yourself down by thinking that promises you make to yourself are less im-portant. If you want to change something about yourself, go all in. Go to the gym, do bicep curls in the squat rack, and never give up.

Summer Stallbaumer is a freshman business major, and a staff reporter for the Arkan-sas Traveler.

Why common core is a common mistake academia makes

Take a trip through the university catalog and you will find countless pages of numbers and letters that have unquestionably defined our lives as students here at the UofA.

Find your way to the Uni-versity Core page, though, and you will find something unique: Rationale for UofA General Education Core. No-where else does the university have to explain itself for a re-quirement, and nowhere else is there a disclaimer for why you have to take classes. So why all the fuss?

Well, because after going to school for 13 plus years already, while being forced through the mess that was No Child Left Behind, people are tired of having to take classes they didn’t choose. College is the time for specialization, for delving into the things that really interest and inspire you. By forcing students to com-plete a core curriculum out-side of their respective ma-jors, universities are wasting both our money and our time.

With the popularity of dual-enrollment, these classes are getting taken care of in high school anyway, right? Some students enter college

with enough credit to be of-ficially labeled sophomores, and they get to skip all the English, humanities, and sci-ences the core requires. Ac-cording to the College Board website, as many as seven million students take the ad-vanced placement tests each year to gain all that credit that puts them ahead. However, with the National Center for Educational Statistics report-ing 14.9 million high school students, we can find a large disparity in who has access to such an advantage.

Go to a big, well-funded public school in Texas, and you’ll have all those test fees paid for. Go to a small, poor-ly-funded school in Arkansas, and that $92 (the price of an A.P. exam) comes out of your pocket. The Texan may com-pletely bomb his first test, but it’s all right. He can take it four more times, get used to the structure and eventually work his score up a point or two.

The Arkansan might only be able to afford one chance, and maybe he was running a fever or had a really terrible day. A lower score means no exemption from the core, and his freshman year, he is stuck in Composition 1 as an English major who learned everything on the syllabus

two years before, while the Texan is already getting into his major’s classes. The take away here? You can pay the core away, and that simply isn’t fair. It is hard enough to finish in four years even if you never change your major. Starting out with those credits is a real advantage, especially for those with loans that keep piling up.

If universities are going to run their students through the gamut of the core (English, math, science, art, humani-ties, history, and government) when high schools already did that, of course they are going to receive backlash, but they still stand by it.

A core within a respective major makes sense. There is no way to survive Calculus 4 without the basics in Cal. 1, and it is only the brave or fool-ish soul who would risk Or-ganic Chemistry before taking Chem. 1. Here, the reasoning is clear. But the rationale for the general core? Not so clear.

The rationale includes a lot of fluffy words that attempt to appeal to our responsibility to mankind. These courses are supposed to teach students “to develop the capacity for reflec-tion” and to introduce students to “the breadth of inquiry” and “concepts that shape our in-creasingly technical culture.”

(I’ll give them American his-tory and government. We are in America.)

In practice, those classes become huge auditorium events where students rarely attend and complain about how they don’t care about anything they’re taking. They become blow-off classes and jokes.

After years of general edu-cation, college is marketed as the time of discovery, but with core, students are essentially repeating their senior year of high school. That is a lot of time and money spent just for the sake of checking off a few boxes. If universities re-ally want more well-rounded students, give us more elec-tive space. Instead of core, let us explore classes we’ve always wanted to take but couldn’t because we had to take core classes. Let the Engineer take Ballet. Let the English major take ichthyology. Let me take Chaucer instead of World Civ.

Give us choices, instead of running us through the classes we’ve already been taking for years. We came to college to specialize and explore–so let us.

Darby Guinn is a junior journalism major, and a staff reporter for the Arkansas Traveler

Darby GuinnStaff Reporter

Editorial Board

The Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include your name, student classification and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone number for verification. Letters should be sent to traveler@uark.edu.

Traveler Quote of the Day

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor

Opinion Editor

Isabel Dobrin Julia Trupp TJ Stallbaumer

Summer StallbaumerStaff Reporter

The following article is part two of a three-part series.

A Party in Dissolution: the G.O.P. is fighting a Civil War

Nearly every generation, the American political pro-cess receives a shakeup that drastically alters the election climate.

This move often be-comes the narrative that will eventually define that seg-ment of history. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s shift to the New Deal set the quota for Demo-cratic politics for decades. Ronald Reagan’s brash new conservatism is still seen as the example to strive for in today’s Republican Party. Yet, while most Republicans will agree that Reagan was a fine president, they would disagree as to why, exactly.

The current Republican Party is split into four major factions. Moderate, some-

what conservative, conserva-tive and evangelical.

The moderate faction is home to candidates like Jeb Bush and Ohio Gover-nor John Kasich. They rely on heavy support from the business sector, and fill their rhetoric with a more gentle tone.

Somewhat conservative voters are the most abun-dant and can be viewed as the prototypical Republican. They believe in a consistent-ly conservative government philosophy and generally do not back candidates who propose radical change. They value consistency above all else.

True conservatives are the voters one would likely find at Tea Party rallies. They support candidates like Donald Trump and Ted

Cruz. This brand of politics only recently emerged in the congressional Republican wave of 2010. They value stiff ideological governance and perceive generally any type of government inter-vention as a negative.

Lastly, an evangeli-cal voter puts faith at the center of his or her politics. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former Senator Rick Santorum are central figures among this portion of the electorate. These two are also the most previous winners of the Iowa caucus. The first-to-vote state features a heavy secular base that can dramatically shift early momentum to candidates who value their particular style of politics.

At the conception of the 2016 Republican primary, 17

candidates made their intent to be the party nominee. Never before had there been such an abundance and range of potential nominees.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent on tearing down other candidates in the field. Party leaders are worried that whoever makes their way out of the primary may be so bloodied by the intra-party struggle to be able to ef-fectively take on the Demo-cratic nominee in the fall.

Whoever comes out on top, they will certainly need to be multi-dimensional.

JP Gairhan is a freshman political science major and a staff reporter for the Arkansas Traveler

JP GairhanStaff Reporter

“We need to be focused on delivering leaders of the future.”

Sue Sedberry, retail lab director

Walton College retail lab to open in Harmon Garage after Spring Break, pg. 2

The Arkansas Traveler NewspaperPage 6 Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

Companion Editor: Alex Golden

Lead Designer: Alyssa Napaisan

“Making the Traveler’s Journey Worthwhile”

From grinding out papers to binge watching shows, stu-dents’ laptops cover almost all areas for work and enter-tainment. After doing count-less hours of homework and keeping up with friends on social media, the once peppy machine starts slowing down and does not work as it once did. Many would resort to getting rid of the old laptop and buying a new one, but there are cheaper ways to have a laptop working like it did.

There are many reasons why a computer will start operating abnormally, but there are a few problems that technology savvy students see more than others.

“Generally, people say their computers are slow. An-other thing is they will get a virus. That is the main thing,” said Xaviar Jones, junior me-chanical engineer major and employee of the Computer Store and Service Center at the UofA Bookstore on N. Garland Avenue.

Other students find that new software will not load on their laptops.

“A lot of times people will come in with the problem of not being able to update their computer in order to run new apps making them incapable of running new software,” said Ashley Gomez, junior biology major and multi-channel sales associate for Best Buy.

Like Jones, Gomez said

she most often hears people say their computers are run-ning unusually slow. There are several reasons why this could be happening, and most of the time the problem can be fixed without buying a whole new laptop.

“Lots of times, people will have a whole bunch of processes running in the background that they do not know about. If you download a whole bunch of toolbars for the Internet, or if you down-load a whole bunch of pro-grams that start up with the computer, it will bog down your system. Especially if you do not have enough RAM to handle all that,” Jones said.

RAM, or random access memory, is memory used by a computer to quickly access data being used by applica-tions. The more programs a student runs on their com-puter; the more RAM they will need.

Many laptops allow for us-ers to add more RAM. The price for RAM varies for each computer, but can be a cheap-er alternative to spending $899 on a new MacBook Air, Apple’s lowest priced laptop on its website.

“If it is just being slow, it is not loading like you want it to, sometimes you do not even have to buy new parts. You can just reinstall the op-erating system. That might sound complicated to some people, but it is actually a pretty simple process,” Jones said.

If a student is uncomfort-able with reinstalling the op-erating system themselves, many tech stores provide this

service for a price, including the service center at the UofA Bookstore.

“Sometimes a faulty hard drive will slow a computer down. A lot of newer lap-tops come with a 500GB hard drive, so if that were to go out, you could spend $150 max on replacing that, and that would be a really good one at that. So, it would make sense to just buy a replace-ment part in a situation like that,” Gomez said.

There are cases where buy-ing a new laptop is the better option. Consumer electron-ics and liquids usually do not mix well and Jones’s past ex-periences can attest to this.

“I spilled Gatorade on my laptop and I did not let it dry out. When I turned it on, it would just do crazy stuff and it just kept getting worse. That is when you should get a new one,” Jones said.

Just like humans, some-times a laptop just gets too

old to do the things it used to do.

“When your laptop is to the point where the operating system stops being able up-date because of old hardware that you can not change, mak-ing it to where certain soft-ware and apps will not work, is when someone should buy a new laptop,” Gomez said.

If a student must buy a new laptop, the brand should be taken into consideration.

“Generally, Apple prod-

ucts will cost more. That is something we actually say to people. If it’s got Apple on it, it is going to be a little more expensive,” said Chad Mills, graduate student and employ-ee of the Computer Store and Service Center at the UofA Bookstore.

If a student’s laptop is not working like it should, there is hope. Buying a new laptop does not have to be the answer to reviving a student’s prized do-it-all college machine.

Alex GorskiStaff Reporter

computer upgrades can be cheaper alternatives

Eric Skagfjord programs a graphical user interface, or GUI, for a user interaction directory Jan. 22 at the University of Arkansas Bookstore.

Michael Morrison Staff Photographer

There are many Mexican restaurants in Fayetteville, but that has not stopped 2015 Walton College graduate Omar Kasim from opening one of his own.

“Con Quesos is a fast-ca-sual fusion taco restaurant,” Kasim said. “We like to say that we’re more than a Tex-Mex restaurant because we offer flavors from around the world. Our mission statement is that we paint a culinary ex-perience unlike any other us-ing the tortilla as our canvas.”

The restaurant opened Jan. 8, but the idea was planted long ago, Kasim said. As an entrepreneurship and small business management major, Kasim made the Con Quesos business plan as his honors thesis, he said.

“It started seeming more

and more like a good idea, so I decided to forgo law school and decided to open a res-taurant,” Kasim said. “I knew that I wanted to do something different and unique and something taco-related.”

Kasim and a friend took a road trip through Oklahoma and Texas to try different kinds of Mexican cuisines, he said. They stopped at 20 or 30 different taco shops during the trip.

“Dallas is a very yuppie area where they have a lot of vegetarian and gluten-free,” Kasim said. “Austin and Waco are very college-centralized cities that have very unique, wacky flavors … San Antonio is very authentic in its Mexi-can cuisine. So when I looked at all these concepts when we were building our own, I thought, ‘What if we combine all of those flavors into a sin-gle brand?’”

Con Quesos serves tacos with Caribbean, Mediterra-

nean, Indian and Tex-Mex flavors as well as breakfast and BBQ tacos, Kasim said. Most of the food is made in-house in an open kitchen so customers can see where and how their food is being pre-pared.

Much like the name of the restaurant, the menu features an assortment of specialty quesos, which Kasim said is an homage to the fact that cheese dip was invented in Arkansas.

Con Quesos has more unique qualities than just its flavors. The restaurant’s logo and interior design were both done by UA students.

The logo was designed by senior finance major Jackson Bates, who is one of Kasim’s friends. Bates said he didn’t like the original design done by a professional, so he of-fered to make a better one.

“But the first one I did was pretty bad too,” Bates said.

The final iteration of the

logo is a simplistic green turtle with the restaurant’s name. It is a turtle because turtles can be found all over the world, just like the flavors available at Con Quesos, Ka-sim said.

The restaurant’s interior is filled with natural light, and music plays constantly from speakers inside and outside the doors.

The interior design was done by UA interior design students Natalie Banister and Amanda Burge. Kasim told them he wanted Con Quesos to feel like a hangout on the beach with friends, Banister said.

“The way that he plates the food is very simple and clean and crisp, and we wanted the design to mimic the food,” Burge said.

The result is a light, airy space with mostly white walls, a colorful graphic de-sign and rustic wooden tables and chairs. Employees call out greetings as new custom-ers open the door.

“He created it with a bunch of students, and it kind of has that atmosphere,” Bates said.

The restaurant is located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, less than two miles from campus.

“The great thing about starting this project as a stu-dent was that I had a lot of re-sources around at the univer-sity,” Kasim said. “If I wanted graphic design, I could ask my friend who does graphic design. If I wanted interior design, I could ask them. If I wanted something finance – or accounting-related, I could ask a finance major to be able to get assistance.”

Though the restaurant has been open less than a month, business is going well, Kasim said.

“We’re beating all our pro-jections and doing way bet-ter than we expected to when students weren’t around, and now that students are coming back our sales are even high-er,” Kasim said. “We’ve run out of food a couple times, which is a good problem to have I guess.”

alumnus opens mexican restaurantSydne TurskyStaff Reporter

Junior Miller Homeyer dines at Con Quesos Jan. 22. UA alumnus Omar Kasim opened the Mexican restaurant Jan. 8.

Frederick Cochran Staff Photographer

He married Helen Wisner, former Miss Arkansas USA, in November 2014. She also graduated from the UofA and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. She continues sharing moments spent with Strickland through social me-dia.

Open to the public, the memorial service Jan. 12 at Cross Church Pinnacle Hills hosted an audience of over 900, and the live webcast re-ceived over 14,600 unique hits from 42 countries, includ-ing the Dominican Republic where Strickland once trav-eled for a mission trip.

“You can really see the im-pact Craig had through those numbers,” Cross Church pas-tor Nick Floyd said. “It’s defi-nitely a community story that spread to the nation, even to the world from what we saw through the webcast.”

Strickland’s father, mother, sister and widow spoke in a video played at the service. Helen Strickland recounted their first date at Mount Se-quoyah in Fayetteville, where he told her he believed “rela-tionships are the only thing we can take with us to heav-en.”

“I know I’m just getting started on my path of grief, but I have come to learn one thing already and that’s that Craig desired a relationship with each of us. He made sure we knew Christ so that he could assure that he could see us again,” Helen Strickland said. “And as much as I want-ed this cup to pass for me, it didn’t and that’s ok.”

Helen Strickland requested a joyful, celebratory service, because that’s what Strickland would want, Floyd said.

“What’s unique about this story is Helen’s strength even in grief — it’s just not nor-mal,” Floyd said. “For Chris-tians, the reality of grief is that it hurts for us, but those who die in Christ are made whole in heaven, so we celebrate in the midst of grief.”

The concert portrayed a similar theme; it felt “somber

at times, but also celebratory,” Baber said, who also per-formed at the memorial.

“We’ve had so much love through this and that’s what makes the atmosphere posi-tive for us; that’s what’s help-ing us get through this,” Back-road fiddler Eric Dysart said.

UA sophomores Taylor Thornbrugh and Madison Edwards attended the second show to support Strickland and Backroad.

“The band is here to re-member Craig, and it’s awe-some that they’re able to broadcast their faith nation-ally through this,” Edwards said.

Backroad sang original songs from its latest EP “Torn” released Sept. 4, 2015 and song covers including “Shut Up and Dance” and “Uptown Funk.” Songs such as “Torn” and “You Should Be Here” proved more emotional, Dys-art said.

“We knew we had some-thing special with ‘Torn.’ With Craig being in that vid-eo we thought it’d be appro-priate to release it at this time just to show everybody what he loved to do,” Freeman said. “He was so excited about that video.”

Baber sang “8 Days in a Week,” the first song he wrote with Strickland.

“I know that music has the ability to span the distance be-tween heaven and earth; I feel my friend rocking out with us tonight,” Baber said onstage.

The concert ended with a cover of “See You Again,” and then Freeman closed the show in prayer. Moving forward, the band intends to keep Craig Strickland’s dream for the band alive.

“Craig has built this vision that we have and we feel like it’s been transferred to all of us,” Backroad drummer Isaac Senty said. “We want to carry it and bring it to fruition as far as Craig wanted to go, which was all the way, so that’s what we’re planning to do.”

Despite rumors, the band never considered quitting, Freeman said. The five-mem-ber band will carry on to hon-or Strickland.

continued from page 1

Backroad Anthem

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016 Page 7

WEEKENDERLost John, “Furious 7” and Last Saturday

Brittany WilliamsStaff Reporter

Art and Theater

A veteran ensemble from the big city will perform a classic tale through an elaborate theater production.

L.A. Theater Works has adapted Bram Stoker’s nov-el Dracula into a stage play. “Dracula” follows the jour-ney of Dr. Van Helsing, who is the only person who can stop Dracula from feasting on London’s popula-tion. The credited ensemble will return to Fayetteville as part of the Walton Arts Center’s Coca-Cola Night Out Series.

L.A. Theater Works is scheduled to perform 7 p.m. Thursday at Walton Arts Center. Tickets priced be-tween $19 and $39 before fees can be purchased on the Walton Arts Center website.

Northwest Arkansans can visit a Fayetteville art gallery and see some of the area’s finest performance artists.

Fayetteville Underground is known as a non-profit art exhibition space. At the gallery’s “Last Saturday” event, patrons can enjoy a free variety show and poetry slam. Previous editions of “Last Saturday” featured live comedy, music and burlesque.

This weekend’s edition of “Last Saturday” will be 7-10 p.m. at Fayetteville Underground, located in the square.

Music

Fayetteville band Lost John will celebrate the re-lease of a new EP with a show at a popular venue this weekend.

Music lovers can expect the four-piece band to per-form songs from “Lost John Live.” The band coined the EP as a “reinterpretation of songs” from their previ-ous project “Arkansas Miracle, California Shame.” Folk musician Willi Goehring will play prior to Lost John.

Doors to the Lost John celebration will open 7 p.m. Saturday, prior to their 10 p.m. show at Ryleigh’s. There is no age restriction for this show, but there is a $5 cover.

A Toronto-based music ensemble will play a classic album “note for note, cut for cut.”

Beatles fans can continue their celebration of the band’s debut to streaming services at a live show. The collective known as Classic Albums Live will stop in Fayetteville to play The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album in its entirety. The Canadian act, led by producer Craig Martin, specializes in precise covers of classic rock al-bums.

Northwest Arkansans can “Come Together” at 8 p.m. Saturday at Baum Walker Hall. Tickets priced $25 before fees can be purchased on the Walton Arts Cen-ter website.

Fun On Campus

University Programs Digital Media committee in-vites students to see Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner again.

UP’s Digital Media committee is hosting a free showing of “Furious 7,” where Brian and the crew work together to help Agent Dobbs acquire a human tracking software from an evil mercenary. “Furious 7” was Paul Walker’s last performance seen on a big screen since his death in 2013.

The action film will ignite the big screen at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Union Theater. Those needing accommodations due to a disability are asked to con-tact the Office of Student Activities.

“Dracula” will be on stage 7 p.m. Thursday at Walton Arts Center.

Courtesy Photo

Fayetteville band Lost John will perform 10 p.m. Saturday at Ryleigh’s on Dickson Street.

Courtesy Photo

“Furious 7” will show 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Union Theater.

Courtesy Photo

She’s constantly moving. Between nine hours of classes and four jobs - two on campus, one at the mall in Fayetteville and another in Rogers - that oc-cupy an additional 50-60 hours of every week, Maddie Kemper is someone who doesn’t have a lot of time to relax.

“I have like, one night off a week,” Kemper said.

Kemper’s situation may be extreme, but in some ways it’s universal. A break ends, a semester starts and suddenly there’s one class too many to deal with and life isn’t slowing down to make time for the ad-ditional workload. Returning students still need to take care of all the same needs, like stay-ing fed, sane, healthy and in shape, all while juggling any number of classes, in addition to the readings and assign-ments those courses produce.

“When you come back to classes, it kind of piles on,” said Mary Alice Serafini, execu-tive director at the Pat Walker Health Center. “It hangs over your head.”

Students, Serafini said, have probably spent some time re-laxing and unwinding during the break, but they’re subject-ed to incredible amounts of stimulation – both academic and social – when classes re-sume. The nonstop rush can be a tremendous stressor, and that stress can make it difficult to perform in the classroom or among friends. Finding a bal-ance between classes and social life may be tricky, but it can help make every dimension of university life go smoothly.

“It pays to have a plan,” Se-rafini said.

The Pat Walker Health Cen-ter, she said, offers a variety of services that can help develop strategies, including counsel-ing and classes that build cop-ing skills.

While academia and social-ization are important, she said,

students cannot forget them-selves. Some quiet time alone is essential for wellness.

“Take some time,” Serafini said. “Turn off the phone, turn off the visuals.”

Yoga and meditation, she said, can help to fill that quiet time – though it isn’t easy to do either when it’s cold outside. Not only is it more difficult to stay outdoors, but people tend to pile into campus build-ings, ensuring quiet spaces are sparse.

And while she did recom-mend those two activities by name, Serafini said that just about any hobby can be help-ful.

“There are lots of opportu-nities on and off campus,” she said.

Not only does Fayetteville have numerous recreation opportunities, the College of Education and Health Profes-sions University Recreation de-partment offers several indoor activities at the HPER building on Stadium Drive, as well as the fitness center in the Arkan-sas Union building.

“Even during inclement weather, we try to stay open as long as we can to give students on campus something to do,” said Lindsay Smith, assistant director of marketing and pub-lic relations.

The recreation department facilitates intramural sports, including softball and basket-ball. There are also clubs and group fitness classes, in addi-tion to spaces – including a pool, track and climbing wall – for activities. Exercise equip-ment, including treadmills, is available to use, and sporting equipment, like balls and rack-ets, can be borrowed for free so long as it’s returned on time. The department also offers massages and rents outdoor activity equipment, including tents, canoes and bicycles.

“I think an important thing to know is that membership is included with tuition,” Smith said.

University Recreation fa-cilities are open to all students,

though it’s worth noting there may be fees to participate in some clubs and sports.

Fitness and emotional well-being are certainly important, but students also need to be concerned about illness, said Zac Brown, assistant director of communications at the Pat Walker Health Center.

“Actual illness is something to be aware of,” he said.

Illness can be a serious con-cern with any concentrated population, and students are no different. When someone is surrounded by others, the likelihood of being exposed to illness is very high.

Brown said getting a flu shot, which is available at the Pat Walker Health Center, can help a great deal. Other precau-tions, like washing one’s hands, can help people avoid becom-ing infected with or transmit-ting an illness.

A return to class can cer-tainly be stressful and often doesn’t leave much time to fo-cus on much else. There are,

however, options on campus to take care of personal health - emotional, medical and physi-cal.

As a junior in the honors college with a major in apparel merchandising and product development who’s paying her own way through school, Kemper has found a thorough-ly outlined schedule to be her greatest ally.

“Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a planner,” she said.

She isn’t just busy, she’s ef-ficient. On her weekly night off, she prepares meals for the coming week. Relaxing and lis-tening to some music happens in the gaps between tasks - on the bus, for instance. She ex-ercises about three times each week, either early in the morn-ing or late at night, when noth-ing else is happening.

“I find that I have to be do-ing something, I have to be moving,” Kemper said. “I don’t really know how to slow down, which is a good thing and a bad thing.”

students struggle to be healthyKeith BryantContributing Reporter

Freshman Jackson Bruner exercises Jan. 21 in the HPER.

Devynne Diaz Staff Photographer

College is a time for self-discovery, making mistakes and taking chances. Sometimes chances come in the form of unexpected opportunities and in unexpected places. Junior Avery Walker took a chance and has taken a semester away from Fayetteville to work in Washington D.C. as a congres-sional intern for Congressman Pete Sessions.

Walker is a communica-tions major from Dallas who stayed involved at the UofA. She worked in student govern-ment, and was involved with Cross Church before leaving Fayetteville to intern in Wash-ington D.C. She decided to at-tend the university because of her older sister, who graduated last year, and because Fayette-ville was “close enough, but also away enough from Dallas,” she said.

Walker did not particularly have a drive to work in govern-ment or politics, but found the subject to be interesting when the opportunity arose. She decided to pursue an intern-ship and change up her college career when she realized she

would be able to graduate a se-mester early, December of this year. Her decision was driven by the idea that this internship would be a good opportunity to experience the workforce and see if this was something she would want to do in the future, she said.

“My sister sent out a mes-sage about applying for an in-ternship underneath her, but because of the conflict of being family members I could not work for her so I looked on-line and applied for this one,” Walker said. Walker’s sister, Ra-chel Walker, is a legislative co-ordinator and staff assistant for Congressman Rick Crawford.

Her sister and her mother both encouraged Walker to take the internship. She and her sister now live in same neigh-borhood in Eastern Market and work adjacent buildings. The overall experience of having Avery Walker in Washington D.C. has been a great experi-ence for Rachel Walker.

“It’s been really nice for me, we’ve gotten lunch together, I’ve been able to take her out and show her around, and I’ve been able to meet her friends,” Rachel Walker said. “It makes me feel like I’m part of her in-tern experience.”

Avery Walker’s internship

as a congressional intern is a semester long starting Jan. 8 until the first week of May, and it counts as three hours of col-lege credit. She chose to work for Congressman Pete Sessions because of his background.

“Since I am from Dallas, and he is the Congressman in the Dallas district I thought it would be interesting to work for someone who is involved not only with Washington D.C., but Dallas as well,” she said. “I was nervous to work with him, but it’s been really interesting and a big learning experience to work with someone who has so much power.”

Pete Sessions represents the 32nd Congressional District of Texas in the House of Repre-sentatives and is chairman of the House of Rules Committee. Walker works with him and others in his office. She works in the Rayburn House office building which is right next door to the Capitol. Her day-to-day job includes answering phone calls from constituents, logging in faxes over concerns or gratitude from constituents, giving tours of the Capitol and working as an assistant to all the staff members, Walker said.

Even though she is working away from Fayetteville, Walker is still enrolled at the UofA

and keeps up with classes. She is taking six hours online, but gets more from working her in-ternship. Most of her class work gets done at night and on week-ends, and she enjoys the online atmosphere more than an actu-al classroom, she said. Her time away from Fayetteville though exciting and new, has also been difficult especially being away from friends, and the idea of coming back.

“I think it’s going to be a culture shock,” she said. “I feel like I’m in the real world work-ing and then I’m going to have come back and go to classes.”

Walker has enjoyed her ex-perience living in the big city. It is easier to be unplugged from the world and culture in Fayetteville, but in Washington D.C. people live and breathe politics, she said. In her spare time she has her own apartment in the city, and spends time with the other interns, and her roommates visiting museums, monuments and the city itself. Her top tourist spots include the National Mall, Georgetown and the White House.

“My favorite thing about Washington D.C. is the city life and how it’s a big city, there are so many people everywhere,” Walker said. “I really enjoy work, meeting people and net-working with people on the Hill.”

Her overall time in D.C. has given the opportunity to see how the government works firsthand, and has prepared her for the next stages of her life, she said. Walker’s experi-ence as an intern has led her to consider a job in the city after she graduates from college. She encourages students who are considering taking a semester off to work as an intern to take a chance and go for it.

“If the opportunity is open, take it because it is a once in a lifetime experience you won’t have after you graduate,” she said. “Getting out there and taking opportunities and get-ting to know more people can not only boost your confidence, but can help you in the long run.”

student interns in washingtonLauren RandallStaff Reporter

Junior Avery Walker works with Texas House Representative Pete Sessions as an intern in Washington.

Courtesys of Avery Walker

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Page 8 Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper Page 9Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

fter a recent hot streak to open conference play, the Arkansas

men’s basketball team has hit a rough patch this past week, los-ing two games in a row to Ken-tucky and Georgia.

In the first game of the week, Arkansas played host to the No. 23 Kentucky Thursday night. John Calipari, head coach of Big Blue Nation’s finest, was seeking his first win ever inside Bud Walton Arena.

The crowd did everything they could, “whiting-out” the arena and being loud and spirited when the game began. Unfor-tunately for the fans, Kentucky came ready to play. The game clearly displayed which team had the better athletes, as the Wildcats jumped out early and dictated the pace of the game. Their defense was stifling, hold-ing Arkansas’ dangerous three-point attack in check.

The Hogs shot just 2-12 from deep, a season low for Coach Anderson’s squad. Junior guard Dusty Hannahs was the only Razorback to get in a flow of-fensively, scoring 20 points. Moses Kingsley had 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

Defensively, the Hogs could

Chandler Carson Staff Reporter

not stop Kentucky guards Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray. The two combined for 43 points, includ-ing 18-20 from the charity stripe. Forward Derrick Willis showed up huge for their team, chipping in 12 points, seven rebounds and four blocks.

Arkansas battled the whole way through. Every time they made a run at Kentucky, the Wildcats always found a way to respond. Fouls became a huge part of the game, messing up the flow and extending the duration of the game. The teams combined for 43 fouls and 61 free throws.

The loss bumped Arkansas to 9-9 overall, and 3-3 in South-eastern Conference play. Mike Anderson’s team had a quick turnaround and headed to Ath-ens, Georgia on Saturday to take on the Georgia Bulldogs.

The second game of the week ended with the same result, just in a more brutal fashion. The Ra-zorbacks fell in overtime to the Georgia Bulldogs, 76-73. Arkan-sas gave Georgia everything they could in the first half, despite playing Moses Kingsley only four minutes. The junior center had to sit after getting whistled for two early fouls.

Sophomore Trey Thompson played admirably in Kingsley’s place, providing the motor and toughness needed to keep Ar-kansas in the game. The dynamic three-point shooting duo came

back to life for the Razorbacks this game, with Hannahs and senior guard Anthlon Bell mak-ing a combined six threes in the game. Hannahs once again led all Razorbacks in scoring with 24 points, while Bell added 18.

Kingsley came back in the second half and gave everything the Bulldogs could handle, reg-istering a double-double. The game was tight in the closing seconds of the second half, but a couple of turnovers forced this game into overtime.

Georgia guard J.J. Frazier led all scorers with 26 points, in-cluding a late basket in regula-tion to tie the game up. The Bulldogs seemingly beat up on the Razorbacks all game, but their Achilles heel was free-throws in this one, keeping the game close all the way through.

Georgia shot 16-30 from the line, giving Arkansas every chance to claw their way back into the game and stick around. Up 74-68 with under a minute left in overtime, the Bulldogs missed four straight free throws to give life to Anderson’s squad. In the end, Arkansas didn’t have enough juice in the tank to pull out a victory. The final score was 76-73.

Arkansas is 9-10 overall and 3-4 in conference play. The team will return home to face the No. Texas A&M Aggies on Jan. 27 at Bud Walton Arena.

Hogs suffer tough losses

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Guard Jimmy Whitt drives to the basket against Wildcat Charles Matthews on Jan. 21.Emma Schock Staff Photographer

he UofA women’s basketball team had an impressive vic-

tory over the Louisiana State University Tigers Jan. 21, but the team could not repeat its success against the Auburn Tigers on Jan. 24.

The victory at LSU capped a three-game winning streak for the Lady Razorbacks, who have had some ups and downs throughout the course of this season. Junior forward Jessica Jackson finished the game with 15 points and six rebounds to lead the Hogs, while guard Devin Cosper poured in 12 points and five rebounds of her own to help seal the deal. The game proved to be a matchup of two stout defenses, as the 48-44 final score showed just how low-scoring the game was.

Perhaps the most impres-sive defensive performance of the game came in the third quarter, a period in which the Razorbacks only gave up four points to the Tigers. Ar-kansas followed up their de-

Andrew EppersonStaff Reporter

Women’s team shines at homefensive effort by holding LSU to zero baskets through the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. The Tigers rallied to narrow the game to a score of 43-42, but the Razorbacks pulled away after a Cosper three-point shot.

When the Razorbacks re-turned home, they had a couple of days off before they headed to Auburn to face a team that was ready for a fight. Unfortunately for the ladies in red, the Tigers pulled out a hard-fought 71-60 victory in overtime. The key to the Ti-gers’ success was their smoth-ering full-court press, which the team employed throughout the game to force 28 Arkansas turnovers and three steals in the overtime period.

At the end of regulation, Arkansas had four starters in double figures in the scor-ing column. Jackson finished with 19 points, Cosper had 17, Kelsey Brooks had 10 and Melissa Wolf had 10. The Ra-zorbacks received no scoring bump from their reserves, as the only players who scored for the Hogs were starters. While junior center Alecia Cooley added only four points to her stat line, her 10 rebounds were crucial in helping the Hogs

keep things close until over-time struck.

In the overtime period, Au-burn’s defense wore out the Razorbacks and created some easy transition buckets for the home team. The Tigers outscored the Hogs 15-4 in overtime, and the Razorbacks seemed unable to find their offensive identity. When the game ended, it was clear that Auburn left its mark on the glass, outrebounding Arkan-sas 43-35.

Prior to the LSU game, Ar-kansas had won two consecu-tive games against ranked op-ponents and three out of its last four against ranked teams. In the three victories, which all took place in Fayetteville, the Hogs upset then-No. 13 Texas A&M 67-61, then-No. 13 Tennessee 64-59 and then-No. 24 Missouri 64-52. The victory over Texas A&M was especially noteworthy because the Aggies’ coach, Gary Blair, was formerly the head coach at Arkansas from 1993 to 2003.

The Lady Razorbacks, who are 9-11 overall, will have an-other chance to repeat their home magic against ranked teams when they take on No. 22 Florida in Bud Walton Are-na Thursday at 7 p.m..

From the bench, the Lady Razorbacks cheer on their teammates during the home game against the Tennessee Lady Volunteers on Jan. 14.

Andrea Johnson Staff Photographer

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Get to know coach watson

New coach serves up fresh style

hen new Razorback volleyball coach Jason Watson first

landed in Arkansas, he noticed a slight change between Fay-etteville and Tempe, Arizona.

“I had no preconceived ideas and when I flew in, I strongly realized I was not in a metro-politan area,” Watson said.

The town is not necessarily what he’s used to, but it does have its perks, Watson said.

“I came here to interview with no idea of community or of the school or anything like that,” Watson said. “I left here with this unbelievable idea that there is strong community sup-port for Arkansas – that people want this program to succeed. The sense of community is un-like anything I have ever expe-rienced. I feel really humble to be in this spot and fortunate to be the coach here.”

The UofA left an impression on Watson, which was a decid-ing factor in leaving Arizona State, but more importantly than that was his ability to fo-cus on what’s most important to him in life: his family, Wat-son said.

“At Arizona State I was the coach to the indoor and beach teams, and it was difficult to manage that and be a husband and a dad,” Watson said. “I could do it but it was getting difficult. The opportunity here

was to build one program and that resonated with me and my family, that they could get some time back. Before I’m a volleyball coach, I’m a father and a hus-band first. This afforded me that opportunity.”

Family time is important, Wat-son said.

“Coaches use family all the time as a trump card to other things but for me, the age of my children are 13 and 14, and my oldest son is almost 20, and I continually regret the amount of time that I didn’t get to spend with him when he was younger,” Watson said. “That’s weighed on me over the years. This job al-lows me to create a better time balance for my kids.”

With a new coach under the helm for the Razorback pro-gram, fans can expect Watson to take the team in a new direction: one that emphasizes speed and simplicity.

“There are some mechanics things that won’t be as notice-able,” Watson said. “Defensively, we’re going to be fairly disci-plined in the way we are. We are going to limit movement and of-fensively we are going to be more diverse and look to develop some other athletes. We want to be fast offensively, too. We want to be up-tempo on offense and really simple and disciplined defensively. Hopefully one thing you’ll notice is that we’re going to become a really good serving team.”

Watson has developed his strategies over the years and, along with them, he has devel-

oped as well. Going from being a coach who is stoic and emotion-less in front of his players as a great majority are, Watson opted for a different approach all be-cause of what happened in 2011.

In 2011, the Arizona State team finished 9-22 for its second worst finish in program history. How-ever, going into the 2012 season, Watson and Co. had a good re-cruiting class and returning tal-ent, and they looked for a way to avoid their previous season.

“I looked around and won-dered, ‘where do we go from here?’” Watson said. “Some pretty healthy introspection oc-curred. Not only feedback from athletes and our staff, but feed-back from a really close friend of mine who said, ‘I wish your ath-letes knew you as well as I knew you because they would view you much differently from how they view you know.’

“That was a pretty powerful statement for me and I thought that I had to do better. So we em-barked on being good to and for our athletes and engage in con-versation with them. It became this really eye-opening experi-ence.”

Watson has faced challenges as a coach before.

“For me personally, one of the big challenges that I’ve had to face is to understand the sig-nificance and the importance of relationships. That hasn’t always been the case and I made a big shift in 2011 towards being more engaging, more open and show-ing a side of myself that you don’t normally, as a coach, show, like

Alex NicollStaff Reporter

W

some vulnerability. That was a big shift for me that enabled that Arizona State team to go from the 2011 season to 2012 and make the tournament.”

That experience paid off for Watson as his Sun Devils have made it the NCAA tournament each year since 2011. That same philosophy he had with his players at Arizona State is the same that he intends to bring to Fayetteville.

“I’m pretty laid-back and pretty open,” Watson said. “I want to engage with the athlete. I certainly want to be good to them and for them. My job is to create those relationships and maximize them.”

While his personality is one that is geared toward being a player-centered coach, it is im-perative for him to establish trust with Arkansas players af-ter former coach Robert Pulliza stepped down amid allegations of mistreatment and verbal abuse towards players.

“Trust has to come first before you can go ask them to make changes and some changes to the style of play,” Watson said. “Trust has to come over time. For me, to be true to my per-sonality, I want to be emotion-ally consistent. I don’t want to respond too emotionally to situations. I need to be consis-tent over the short term and long term in how I interact with them. Over time the relation-ships will develop but they’re not going to be tomorrow or next week. That is a big thing we need to do this spring.”

BASKETBALL

What is your favorite sport to watch or play, besides volleyball?“I’m a big cricket fan. I grew up playing cricket and I watch it. I like rugby as well and of late, I think college football is a remarkable sport. But I could be the only person in Fayetteville to watch a cricket game and think it’s the greatest thing ever.”

Who was your role model growing up?“My college coach, Carl McGown. I played for him at BYU and he had a remarkable influence upon me and it’s why I’m in this profession. He had a profound effect on me.”

What are your top three favorite movies?“I like ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ the one with Russell Crowe; that was an awesome movie. It sounds terrible but the latest ‘Star Wars’ movie is really up there. I thought it was really, really good. Maybe it’s my fa-vorite, maybe it’s not, but one way up there is ‘Mean Girls.’ I watch ‘Mean Girls’ an enormous amount.

Sports Editor: Nikolaus Koch

Sports Designer: Ashton Eley

Asst. Sports Editor: Matt Vigoda

Courtesy of Razorbacks AthleticsJason Watson, new head volleyball coach, waves to the crowd during the home gymnastics meet Jan. 15.

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016Page 10

ith one of the toughest open-ing schedules in

the country, the Arkansas gymnastics team has done well against the onslaught of top ranked opponents it has faced early this season.

In its first four meets, the team faced a bevy of top 10 ranked opponents with the likes of No. 7 Michigan, No. 3

Ladybacks make up for early losses with big win over the Crimson Tide

Alex NicollStaff Reporter

Oklahoma and most recently, No. 4 Alabama.

The team opened up the season against Michigan and Iowa in the Cancun Classic in Cancun, Mexico. It placed second behind Michigan in the final standings with a score of 195.150. The Wol-verines won with an overall score of 196.975.

Amanda Wellick scored the highest among Arkansas gymnasts in the vault portion of the meet with a score of 9.900. The junior also led the Razorbacks in the floor ex-

ercise routine and was tied for first in the uneven bars with Paige Zaziski with a score of 9.850.

Arkansas then hosted No. 15 Georgia on Jan. 15. The Hogs lost a close one to the Bulldogs with a final score of 196.775-196.700. The team outscored Georgia in the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise portions of the meet, but even the combined point differential of those three events were not enough to overcome Georgia’s domi-nance in the vault competi-tion.

The Bull-dogs, led by Brandie Jay with a score of 9.950, scored 49.375 points to Arkansas’ 48.975.

The Razor-backs next meet against O k l a h o m a did not fare better. The team lost 197.050 to 195.900 to drop its re-cord to 1-3 on the season. With only one day’s rest be-tween Geor-gia and the Sooners, it was going to be a challenge to take on a top three team in the nation.

Zaziski led the way for the Razorbacks, scoring a 9.900 on the uneven bars and an 9.875 on the balance beam. Wellick once again led the group in vault with a score of 9.900. It was the third consecutive time that she led the team in this part of the meet.

After dropping its last two meets, the No. 9 Razorbacks broke the losing streak with an impressive win over rival and No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide, 196.700-196.400.

Arkansas was down after the first two rotations, losing out to Alabama in the uneven

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GYMNASTICS

Adams Pryor Photo Editor

bars and vault portions, but dominated in the bal-ance beam. Poor perfor-mance from the Crimson tide, coupled with Wellick’s 9.900 and Sydnie Dil-lard and Samantha Nel-son’s 9.850 scores, led to a 49.225-48.325 score over Alabama that pushed them to the victory.

“Beating Alabama for the first time here means a lot for the confidence of our program; we need to take what we did today and use it as we go through the sea-son,” Arkansas coach Mark

Cook said in a university press release. “On a personal note, it’s almost like an im-passe in your career to finally go someplace and beat a team to get that monkey off your back. It was extremely em-powering and just fulfilling for me.”

The Razorbacks’ will host the Auburn Tigers (2-2) on Friday, Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers will be enter-ing the meet coming off a 197.075-195.900 loss to con-ference opponent Florida. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.

Junior Amanda Wellick performs her floor routine Jan. 17. Wellick is ninth in the country on vault with a 9.883 average score.

Adams Pryor Photo Editor

Senior Erin Freier sticks the landing on bars during the home meet against Oklahoma on Jan. 17.

The Arkansas Traveler Newspaper

Page 11Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

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Bret Bielema leads Arkansas to their second consecu-tive bowl win during the Advocare Liberty Bowl Jan 2.

Adams Pryor Photo Editor

rkansas head coach Bret Bielema has com-pleted his third season

at the helm of the Razorback football program, leading his team to an improved 8-5 re-cord. After a successful season in 2015, some fans are already looking forward to seeing if positive steps will continue to be taken by Bielema and his staff next season.

Arkansas will enter next season without many of the experienced players who pro-duced at a high level for the Hogs over the past few years. The team is losing both of its premiere, 1,000-yard rushers, senior Jonathan Williams and junior Alex Collins, who car-ried the load in the ground at-tack this past year due to Wil-liams’ season-long injury. The team is also losing all but one of it starting offensive linemen, tearing apart an o-line that was the biggest in all of football the past two seasons.

The Razorbacks are also los-

ing it’s all-American tight end Hunter Henry, the 2015 Mack-ey Award winner for the best tight end in college football. But, arguably the biggest loss to the team will be redshirt-se-nior quarterback Brandon Al-len’s departure from the team.

Allen produced at a high level this past season, placing him in the top quarterbacks in the Southeastern Confer-ence. He tossed more than 3,000 yards this season along with 30 touchdowns, a drastic improvement from the season before.

Despite the losses offensively, the team will return many key players to the defense next season, including linebackers Brooks Ellis and Dre Greenlaw and safety Josh Liddell.

In order to keep moving forward, Bielema and the Ar-kansas recruiting staff must reload and find talent to step into holes in the roster. The highlight of the 2016 recruiting class is McTelvin Agim, ranked No. 11 overall in the ESPN 300. The defensive end from Hope, Arkansas walks into a system that is stacked along the defen-sive line in depth, as he will be

Coach Bielema poised to take on fourth yearLeonce DeLochStaff Reporter

another player to insert into the rotation.

Arkansas made a point to address the issue in the back-field by receiving a commit from the sixth ranked running back in the 2016 class, Devwah Whaley. The team also adds another quarterback to the competition that will begin this offseason with Cole Kelley.

Kelley, a six-foot seven-inch, 246-pound freshman will have high level receivers accompa-nying him into this recruiting class such as in-state recruits T.J. Hammonds and Jordan Jones, both four-star prospects according to ESPN. The two wideouts will join an already deep receiving corp that brings back many impact players such as Drew Morgan and Domi-nique Reed.

The depth for next season along the offensive line ap-pears to be thin because of the lack of commitments at the position. Two players from the 2016 recruiting class are offen-sive linemen, making the total 15 for next season. The depth at that position is typically un-der the standards of a Bielema system, especially in losing

four starters including Denver Kirkland.

Next season, the schedule will be just as tough as other sea-sons, if not tougher. The team added a big-time matchup to the non-conference schedule against Texas Christian Univer-sity on the road. The Hogs have a slight schedule benefit despite the hardened nonconference schedule as most of the big-time matchups for the team will be at home this season.

Under defensive coordinator Robb Smith, a coach who had the Hogs in the top 10 overall defensively in his first season, the Hogs will bring back an ex-perienced linebacking core to lead after losing a few players to graduation and the draft.

If the Razorbacks can fill the major gaps in the offense, the team should be better this sea-son because of an experienced defense. Depending on the play of the quarterback, the team may be more successful in the passing game due to the talent in the receiver and tight end po-sitions. Arkansas seems primed to win about eight games and finish the season ranked in the top 25 rankings.

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Austin AraujoStaff Reporter

Swimming and diving continues success with final lap approaching

he No. 24 Razorback swimming and diving team has one final dual

meet against the University of Illinois on Saturday before the SEC Championships begin.

The Razorbacks have won eight meets outright and have only one loss in a dual meet this season. It came against fellow SEC member Auburn on Jan. 15.

The Fighting Illini are 8-3 at dual meets this season but

come to Fayetteville having lost their last two dual meets against Nebraska and Iowa respectively. Sunday, against Nebraska, Illi-nois head coach Sue Novitsky’s squad won just six of 16 events.

Fighting Illini sophomore Sa-mantha Stratford was one of Il-linois’ brights spots in their meet against the Huskers. Stratford won the 200 yard butterfly and the 200 yard individual medley. As a freshman, Stratford com-pleted four of the top 10 fastest finishes in an individual event in program history.

Illinois was unable to capitalize on Stratford’s wins as Nebraska took the victory on the Husk-

ers’ senior day. Illinois’ last win came against Iowa State on Jan. 15. Stratford won two events during that meet as well.

Arkansas is coming off a sweep at a quad meet against Vanderbilt, Houston and Clem-son in Fayetteville. The Hogs won seven events including five individual races.

Razorback Madison Strath-man has been one several bright spots throughout the season and she continued her stellar play with her performance on Saturday. The freshman won the 200 yard breaststroke and was part of the first place 200 yard medley relay team.

“We’re very happy with the way Madison has performed,” Arkansas head coach Sean Schimmel told Razorback Athletics. “She’s in a really good spot right now and has handled coming in as a fresh-man very well. She’s given us a spark a lot this year, like she did today. We’re looking to have that when we go to SEC Championships in a few weeks as well.”

As the regular season winds down, Arkansas’ focus has be-gun to shift from maintaining their steadfast performances to upping their game in the postseason.

“Having this whole environ-ment with my teammates and coaches has really helped me develop this season,” Strath-man told Razorback Athlet-ics. “We’re all constantly get-ting better as we prepare for championship season.”

The Razorbacks look to be hitting their stride in time for postseason play and a good outing against the Fighting Illini would continue to help the team prepare for the SEC Championships a few weeks after their meet on Saturday.

“We have a great team dy-namic right now and have really come together,” Schim-

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mel said. “Feeding off of each other is a big part of what we do. When people are swim-ming well, others jump on board and help get it going. We’re excited about what we’re doing and where we’re headed.”

Arkansas looks to continue their excellence in Fayetteville on Saturday and push their record to 4-0 at home this sea-son. Saturday’s meet against Illinois starts at 11 a.m. After the upcoming meet, the SEC Championships will be next on Arkansas’ slate. The cham-pionships take place in Co-lumbia, Missouri on Feb. 16.

COMMENTARY

Page 12 Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016

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