The Reporter

thurs ... S..T .E..T -S. Q a.M -.-- Ua. N.-.I-.V..E. R .8 I .T. .Y issue j.,'".. volume »"." '■ " -.pApP"tfAy-A-y^A^ "AAir ,•» ■,-"•"'-'"' " * ] mT^ id: Patrick King news writer The Dean of Arts and Sciences, Grady Ballenger, suffered a bicycle accident on Sunday, January 8th. He was bicycling in northeast Deland when he was hit by a motorcycle and was thrown from his bicycle. Luckily, the driver of the motorcycle was trained in emergency medicine and was able to help direct traffic and keep Dean Ballenger comfortable until the ambu lance arrived. Dean Ballenger was taken to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach where doctors informed him that he had a pelvic fracture on his right side, near the joint as well as, dislocating his right shoulder. At the hospital he received surgery for the pelvic fracture, in which a plate and eight pins were used, and he is now on his way to a full recovery. "Things around campus haven't been the same without him," said Dr. Karen Kaivola, who is now acting as associate Dean with Toni Blum, during Dean Ballenger's absence. "[Everything is] extremely busy! And of course, we miss him. The associate deans are fortunate to have an extremely capable, efficient, and knowledgeable staff," Kaivola.said. "We hope to see [Dean Ballenger] on campus, at least for brief periods of time, within the next several weeks. In the meantime, we're keeping in touch . by phone," Kaivola added. Dr. Blum has high hopes for a quick return from Dean Ballenger. Although he has been unable to speak with Dean Ballenger, he is "hoping that . his recovery is swift, but I don't want him to push himself to return before he is feeling strong and well. We will continue to 'hold down'the fort." Dr. Blum was perhaps the most forthcoming in saying his feelings for Dean Ballenger, as he stated, "...honestly...I miss him, both professionally and personally." Dean Ballenger has received much support from the university's community, ranging from arrangement of meals to help with errands and housework. "My heart broke when I heard he was injured," said Sheila Abbot of Hu man Resources. Dean Ballenger's secretary, Trena Wetherington said that he was always "calling us and bugging us" to keep him posted on everything that was going on around the office. She spoke with him recently and thought he sounded much better. Currently, he is going through therapy and will be returning to campus as soon as he has recovered. Contact Patrick King at pking@stetson. edu Alumni Crawfor speaks on politics and ■o ' th Marie Villard news writer No matter how controversial the issues, no matter how hard he is pressed, and no matter how many times you throw him off campus, he still comes back strong and witty. Craig Crawford, a Stetson Alumni, and Stetson Law alum, and a political pundit who writes for Congressional Quarterly and often appears on "The Early Show," CNBC, MSNBC and radio talk show "Imiis in the Morning was on campus Monday, February 6 to talk about his new book, Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You against the Media, which is already in its third printing. He is described by Dr. Wayne Bailey as a "genuine talking head, not only is he traditional, but has also found a way to come out with one liner limeri-ks." Crawford's alma mater was the last stop of his 25-college tour that he was on to promote his book and discuss the media. Crawford became interested in politics from an early age: the third grade. He recalls sitting in a lemonade stand in his front lawn selling his ideas rather than the liquid gold drink: he was promoting Lyndon Johnson for President by getting kids to talk to their parents about voting. He stills has a traced hand, thanks to his mother, from the time that he shook Johnson's hand at the airport. He was also active in high school in the student government and such clubs. Crawford attended Stetson in the mid-1970s, and was quite the student. He became involved in the Political Science department where he was impressed upon by professors such as Dr. Wayne Bailey, who encourages students to get involved. This is just what Crawford did. He joined groups and helped write the constitution for the student court, which he served on, but was eventually impeached because he favored all students; mind you this was in the days of Stetson's Baptist Affiliation. Craig Crawford graduated in 1978, and in the fall of this year is when Doug Lee assumed the role of President of the University. When Dr. Lee asked the Dean of Students what to expect of the students, Lee recalls the Dean saying, "There is one very peculiar student who insists on driving his car into the sinkhole at fraternity row." President Lee recalls wondering how he was going to deal with this, but now understands that Crawford "always looked for things to stand for." When Crawford graduated, he re- See CRAWFORD, 2A >GA9 Jim Beasley, Reslife di§cii§§ issues with upcoming'Village Apartmeets at info session -.. .. < *_■._»v*ti'^;f3r._ ■-AA^fA , -^a*.^"-)V |i'"^'^i~-?'^v -•r- i v %. -,- ?*„.« '"■-' - li :v**' ^i$__siaffi^A-^v..i.*?-v AaS*a'^a. _J .*A_ H_* A*j i^J___A__5'/-*A. " ''.%.. -, .." .'"i_ ,, " , '.. aVJ *5 C__»,js- --:v __.^'T*/?"■*.•<_; }»___ -,rf CAMILLE BILLY /"THE REPORTER Construction of the new apartment buildings has begun. CAMILLE BILLY / THE REPORTER With Gordis Hall in the back, the foundation of the building is set. Michael Riggs managing editor In coordination with Dean Espinosa, the acting director of Residential Life, and Dr. Beasley, the university's vice president, the SGA held an informational meeting concerning the new residence halls, apartments, and housing policy, on February 6, at 7:00pm. The meeting began with a brief description of the locations and specifics of the new residences. Seven buildings in all are being built on the southeast side of campus: four apartment buildings with 4-bedroom units; one apartment building with 2-bedroom units; one clubhouse (which will house a classroom, computer lab, kitchen, and game room); and one residence hall. The seven new buildings will encompass a total of 120,000 square feet, and will have 338 beds. The apartments were intended to bring students back to Stetson from off-campus housing, but have not filled up as hoped. Registration was opened to sophomores on Tuesday, as there were still beds open in the apartments. According to Dean Espinosa, assignments will be made by the end of the February instead of in the first weeks of the month, due to the lower than expected number of applicants. Notification will go out before March 3 to those applicants who were accepted, and leases are to be signed after Spring Break. After the briefing, Dean Espinosa and Dr. Beasley opened up the floor for questions. One of the first inquiries was whether or not students had to have meal plans if they were living in the apartment. "You do not have to be on a meal plan [if living in the apartments],, though food services will still be available." Said Dean Espinosa. Other students were curious as to whether or not their financial aid pack age could be applied towards the cost of the apartments, and were told by Espinosa that, "all financial aid and scholarship money is applicable to the new housing." The visitation policy for the apartments will be 24/7, just as in Emily and Stetson Halls. It will be up to "apartment mates," said Espinosa, "to determine their own visitation policy." Several groups of students arrived not as potential renters, but as protesters questioning the new housing policy. Students of one group had plans to live off-campus for fall 2006, but have less than 90 credit hours. They showed up to oppose the hefty fine that their move would incur. After a few minutes of argument between Dean Espinosa and and the group of students, Dean Espinosa gave a final reason for the university's policy: "Why are we encouraging students to stay or come back on campus? Because studies show that students who live in Resi dence halls are typically more successful—academically, socially, and co- curricularly." Dr. Beasley then stepped forward and briefed other concerned students on some specifics of the housing policy. "If a student currently lives off- campus, [and has met the two year residency policy or lives at home] he or she will be exempt from the residency policy. If a student is currently off-campus and is being assessed the two-year residency penalty, they will continue to be assessed that penalty next semester." Dr. Beasley closed the meeting with a discussion of future construction plans. "In all three cases [Emily, Stetson, and Chaudoin], we have plans to do additional renovations this summer. When implementing new building plans in three years, Stetson Hall would be the first to go.'' Contact Michael mriggs@stetson. edu Riggs at nges in GRE cause more preparation for test takers Katie Geroux life writer Thinking about going to graduate school? You might be one of the 500,000 future graduate school applicants that are required to take the General Record Exam (GRE) this year. The GRE has been the graduate school equivalent to the SAT for undergraduate programs. It is a requirement made by many graduate level programs, within the arts and science's school, including education and journalism. Kaplan Inc. has announced that the GRE is undergoing its biggest transformation since it began 55 years ago. The changes were suppose to go in effect October of this year, however Kaplan Inc. has extended the implication date to be in the fall of 2007. There are many vital changes dealing with scoring techniques, types of ques tions, and the extended overall length of the exam. Also, a distinct difference is the new test plans to be a computer- based, linear exam, meaning the test questions that are given on one day are all the same for each individual test taker. The current test is computer- adaptive, so depending on the performance of the test taker; the questions will adapt and pull different questions from the pool. The changes were created to in- crease the test validity by providing more information about each candidate for their college of choice. While the new test is suppose to address many security con- "once the new test is implemented it will be longer and more challenging for some... [Those] who can adequately prepare for the test [should] take it before it changes." MATT FIDLER GRE program manager cerns, it will provide worldwide access to the test through an Internet-based testing network, overall making better use ofthe advances in today's technology. . Junior education major Hay ley Graham doesn't plan on taking the GRE, Stetson's Graduate Program in 2007. Graham explained, "the education department doesn't require you to take [the GRE] if you have a 3.5 GPA when you graduate." Laura Sands, senior psychology major, admitted to taking the current GRE exam and found the verbal section extremely difficult. Upon finding out about the new changes, she would rather have taken the newer version, even though it is longer. Sands feels that she would have done better with more reading sections rather than trying to memorize a thousand vocabulary words for the verbal section. Advice from Matt Fidler, GRE program manager for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, to any potential grad students is "once the new test is implemented it will be longer and more challenging for some... [Those] who can adequately prepare for the test [should] take it before it changes." The changes listed are as of February 2006, as more potential changes are decided their website will be updated. For more information go to www.ets.org. See GRE CHANGES, 2A Thursday's Forecast: Partly Cloudy High 73 Low 54 ^M/ V/7& CALENDAR 3B NEWS 2.4. CROSSWORD 2B NEWSMAKERS 3 A HISTORY 2B OPINIONS 4A HOROSCOPE 2B RUMINATIONS 2B LIFE IB MOVIE REVIEW 3B METRO REPORT 2 A STUDENT GOVERNMENT 3A MOVIE LISTINGS 3B Valentine's Day! Love is still in the Stetson air as the commerical holiday brought in chocolate and flowers. PAGE 1B Movie Review Movie critic Blair Townley writes what's new in "Something New." PAGE 2B fesasebal! Begins Stetson's Baseball team starts its season. PAGE 2C