The Reporter

Thursday, February 14, 2013 Vol. CXX Issue 9 Stetson University | DeLand, Fla Win streak for women s JD Diehl Staff Contributor Inspired by a season-best 21-0 run midway through the first half, the Stetson women's basketball team defeated ETSU 74-65 in an Atlantic Sun Conference game Sunday. The victory was Stetson's 15th straight at home, tying for the fifth-longest active home court winning streak in Division I. Junior forward Sasha Sims led the Hatters in double figures with 20 points as Stetson (17-6, 10-2 A-Sun) swept the season series from ETSU (6-13,4-8). "Overall I was pleased with our effort and with how well we played," Lynn Bria, Stetson head coach, said. "We were very active on defense, and we had a lot of deflections. I thought our defense was some of the best I've ever seen." Shanasa Sanders continued her strong play of late with a 17-point, six-rebound performance. Cherisse Burris netted 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, while Victoria McGowan added 14 points, five assists, and four steals. With the game tied at 19, the Hatters went on a 21-0 run over a seven-minute span, highlighted by a three-pointer by Sanders and a three-point play by McGowan. ETSU cut a 20-point halftime deficit down to 10 with 7:29 left in the game, but the Hatters held on down the stretch for the victory. "The Women's basketball team is incredibly talented. It's the most exiting team to watch at Stetson right now," Payton Poliakoff said after the game. "It's always a fun time to watch this team play and win consistently. Janelle Mills played in her school-record 120th consecutive game. She has not missed a game in her career. McGowan, meanwhile, moved up to fifth in school history with 1390 career points scored. "I think our energy dropped a little bit in the second half, but I also think they started to get the ball inside a little better," Bria said. "I'm glad we got some stops when we needed it and we put some points on the board when we needed it." The Hatters won again Monday night as Stetson hosted USC Upstate. Their 16th straight home win came after a 48-point first- half and a 79-55 final score. The contest was Stetson's Play4Kay game and all fans were encouraged to wear pink as the women's basketball team helps raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 16 GAME HOME WIN STREAK Photos courtesy: Stetson University >T.T*l*\W Kenesaw State, 73-68 Jan 28, 2012, Mercer, 68-46 Feb 09, 2012, Belmont, 68-46 Feb 11, 2012, Lipscomb, 74-59 Nov 16, 2012, Florida A&M, 88-67 Nov 20, 2012, Bethune-Cookman,66-52 Nov 25, 2012, Ball State, 78-66 Dec 04, 2012, Lvnn University, 65-51 Dec 1 Georgia Southern, 70-39 Dec 19, 2012, UNC Asheville, 74-47 Jan 05, 2013 North Florida, 71-57 Ian 07, 2013 Jacksonville, 73-56 Jan 19, 2013, Lipscomb, 92-51 Jan 21, 2013, Northern Kentucky, 62-39 Feb 09, 2013, ETSU, 74-65 Feb 11, 2013, ySC Upstate, 79-55 Procedural, policy changes allows Residential Life to be more responsive to students .Eleanor Roy Managing Editor In an effort to make housing sign-ups easier and more efficient, Residential Life has made a few policy and procedural changes, according to Colin MacFarlane, assistant director of housing operations. Students will now be able to sign up for housing online through Housing Central, a service purchased by the university this year. "This is a completely online process," MacFarlane said. "That'll be really exciting and we're really glad that we've been able to provide that for students." MacFarlane explained that students will be given a code through the software system before sign ups. When they log into the website, and a live feed will show what rooms are available at that time. To pick a room, students enter their code into the system, making their room assignment official. MacFarlane added that one perk of the online system is that it only takes one person to sign up an entire room block. For example, if four people plan to live together in the University Village Apartments, then only one ji^n- Hie k mPJL Jm * . ."■' JE 3v5f'"* pg.4 student actually has to physically enter all four students' codes into the system, and students' codes can be exchanged between them ahead of time. Sign up time slots will be assigned based on a student's credit hours this year, but there are no longer any credit hour requirements to live in certain buildings. In a group of multiple students, they will be able to sign up at the time assigned to the person with the most credit hours. This change was made so that the university can have a more efficient progressive housing model, which MacFarlane said is what most other universities use. MacFarlane described the progressive housing model as helping students move from, "more community to more independence," starting with shared rooms during a student's first year to more private rooms later on. In the past, first-year students were prohibited from living with upper division friends in certain buildings because of the credit hour restrictions. Eliminating this rule and instead replacing it with the new system will "reward those folks who have been here longer," without holding back students who want to live with upper division friends. Incoming first-years will be able to use Housing Central to browse other incoming students to see if there are any that they might want to live with instead of being assigned a roommate through Residential Life. Returning students also have this option, but it will be most beneficial for incoming freshmen who may not know very many people in their class. "For the new students, though, now they can browse and try and find each other," MacFarlane said, adding that it allows students to connect anonymously to see if they would be good roommates. The Housing Central software will also help Residential Life identify those students who may have fallen through the cracks and are neither living on campus nor have applied to live off campus. "This is going to clean that up a lot," MacFarlane said. "We'll be able to very easily figure out who signed the lease, who has been approved to live off, who hasn't done either," One policy that has not changed is the 90-credit-hour minimum for a student to live off-campus, unless a student has been approved to live off-campus for other reasons. Students will now also be able to request to live off campus and other housing accommodations online through Housing Central. MacFarlane said that anecdotal feedback from students along with having some new additions to the Residential Life staff allowed the office to take a holistic approach on housing for next year. "We're able to put fresh eyes on everything and just kind of look at 'how should this be, what makes the most sense, what is best practice across the nation and how does that relate to how we do things the Stetson way?'" In addition to these procedural and policy changes, MacFarlane said that students will be able to sign up to live in the University Inn rooms, which will have been fully renovated by the beginning of the Fall semester. The building's new name will be University Hall. The pool will have to be filled for, "liability reasons," and that area will likely be turned into a green common area for students living there. MacFarlane said that room selection guides will be available soon through the Residential Life office, and that actual sign ups are planned to take place after Spring Break.