The Reporter

Vol. CXXI Issue 04 THE EPORTER Stetson University I DeLand, Fla. 1 1 wtu h£ Check out The Reporter's new website by scanning this code! Women's volleyball has best season start since '99 After winning their first tournament, the team is now the Westin Classic Champions Sean McKnight Sports Editor Stetson's Volleyball team was named 2013 Westin Classic title champions on Sept. 7 after trumping Providence and Savannah State 3-1 and 3-0, respectively. With the tournament win, the team has already surpassed last year's win total and is off to their best start since their 1999 season. Stetson's volleyball team played aggressive both days of the tournament and after their first match of the day against Providence, it was smooth sailing to winning the tournament. The Hatters and Providence split the first two sets and Stetson held a 12-10 lead in the third set when senior Ellen Hawks had four consecutive blocks. Hawks's phenomenal play helped set the Hatters up for a 6-0 run which allowed them to take the third set right from under Providence and win it 25-19. Then, in the fourth set, Stetson cruised to a 25- 14 win, which allowed them to trump over Providence three sets to one. In the match against Providence, Stetson played very well as a unit. They were extremely cohesive and were all able to come together to trump over a strong Providence squad. Against Providence outside hitter Madison Akins led the team with 14 kills, while middle blocker Erika White added 12 kills and outside hitter Tiffany Creamer had 11 kills. Setter Kayla Weller also had a phenomenal match with 48 assists and 16 digs against the Providence squad. In the first day of the tournament, Stetson played just like they should. Every player had a chance to get in contact with the ball, always staying on the attack and turning what should have been a point for Providence into a point for the Hatters. When the second day came around. Stetson was up against Savannah State and absolutely dominated them in all four sets. In the first set, Stetson won 15-7, in the second they won 13-7 and in the third they won 13-5. Against Savannah State, Stetson's hit percentage was .379 and they put up 47 kills in 87 attempts with a mere eight errors during all three sets. The team's success is all due to solid teamwork by the Stetson squad as well as some standout players. Ellen Hawk surpassed 300 career blocks, becoming the seventh Hatter to ever reach that milestone. She was also named on the all-tournament team along with Madison Akins. Kayla Weller and Kaley Melville were named co-Most Valuable Players for the tournament. Lakeland Police investigating student suicide Eleanor Roy Editor-in-Chief Lakeland Police are investigating the suicide of a Stetson sophomore whose family says she left a note in the form of a poem describing the bullying she endured online from a man she knew for several years. Theresa Till, a business major at Stetson, was 19 when she took her own life on Sept. 1 in Lakeland, Florida. Till's case is still under investigation, according to Lakeland Police Public Information Officer Sergeant Gary Gross, and he was subsequently unable to confirm that Till was being cyberbullied. Till's family said they were not sure exactly what triggered her suicide, but after her death they learned from her poem she was still being harassed online and through the phone by the man. Deborah Cowan, Till's grandmother, added that Till told her family that the man had stopped contacting her, but they think she was really just trying to keep them from being worried. "We knew he was doing this, but we thought he had stopped," Cowan said. "We didn't find any of this out until after the event," Don Alfred, Till's father, said. Till, originally from Panama City, was studying business at Stetson, but was possibly considering changing her major. "The last thing I heard was she wanted to go into business law," Cowan said. She was not sure exactly what Till would do after graduation, but said that she wanted to return to Europe and Asia at some point, where she had traveled in the past. "She was planning on going back to China and France," Cowan said. "She just loved it over there." Allred also was not sure exactly what she planned to do after she graduated. "That's a good question," he said, laughing. "Making me broke!" "She just loved Stetson," Cowan said, and added that Till was really excited this year to live in the Stetson Cove apartments. Till's grandmother said she was a lover of art and animals, and always wanted to help the homeless. "She loved to help animals and the homeless," Cowan said, adding that Till was concerned about where the extra food from Stetson's dining services went and thought it should feed homeless people. "She was always taking in strays. She called them 'throwaways.'" One of her favorite 'throwaway' adoptions was a cat named Donald Trump. Till named him because he looked like he was wearing a wig, Cowan said. "She was always cheerful in the Stetson Confessions removed for copyright infringement Eleanor Roy Editor-in-Chief The Stetson Confessions Face- book page that reached celebrity status this month was taken down by its creators, not the university, according to "Sam and *Jason, who made the page. After a meeting with the Office of Community Standards, Sam learned that the university logo they used as the page's profile picture was actually copyrighted, and needed to be removed. According to Dean of Students Rosalie Carpenter, the university would not have contacted Sam if the logo in the profile picture was not copyrighted. She said that "the content did not match our [Stetson's] values," but there was nothing the university could do about that. She also said the university will not pursue legal action against Sam for the copyright infringement. Sam and Jason are both freshman, and wanted their names kept private for this story. Neither of them knows how the university heard about Sam's involvement with the page, but Stetson does not know about Jason. The page got started when Sam and Jason became friends during FOCUS. "This girl who goes to Lewis & Clark, she showed me her confessions page and I thought it was hilarious," Jason said. "Yeah, my friend showed me his at Embry-Riddle and I was interested," Sam said. "And I saw that we didn't have one." The page started out with about eight likes, but after Sam and Jason put up flyers around campus, that number jumped drastically. "In three, well, really two and a half days, it went from eight to 777 [likes]," Jason said. "That was our final number." Sam and Jason explained that the page was operated by them, and people would "confess" on a Google doc, which they would then post on the page, "It's completely anonymous," Sam said. "Except some people did start messaging the page directly through facebook, which isn't smart on their part because I see who it was," Jason said, laughing. "About 10 people did that. And the rest of them were anonymous." The confessions ranged from the most innocent things like crushes, to more serious ones, like when a student admitted to sleeping with his or her work-study boss. "I mean, I could kind of see that it's a public page and anybody can see like the inappropriate stuff that would taint the reputation of Stetson," Sam said, "but it's for entertainment and you don't know if some of that's true." Sam and Jason said that they never made up any of the confessions, and would take out names if people wrote them in the Google doc. In all, the Google doc received about 250 student confessions and they were able to post around 170 before they took the page down. There were a few that they did not post just because they "didn't make sense or were boring," Sam said. "Some people were just like 'I'm drunk and I had sex,' and I'm like 'This is stupid, whatever,'" Jason said. Sam said that he and Jason have thought about renaming the page and putting it back up, but Sam probably won't stay involved with it. "I think we're just going to lay low for a little bit," Sam said. "I just don't like the widespread attention. It sounds cool at first," he said, adding that he does not want to run into trouble with the university down the road. "Names have been changed "She had friends from Panama City to Lakeland, honey. She did not realize how much she was loved." time I was around her," Allred said. "Very brilliant." Both Cowan and Allred said the Family plans to press charges against the man they believed bullied Till if they can, but Cowan is afraid he'll just get a "slap on the wrist." A law that went into effect this year makes bullying via technology a misdemeanor in Florida, but it applies only to students in K.-12 schools and focuses mostly on stalking. Cowan said it is too early to know if the family will get involved with cyber- bullying prevention, but they have discussed it. "1 think there should be different laws about this," she said. "These are lives that are wasted from people's words." Till's case, while disturbing, is not all that uncommon. Two weeks ago, a 12-year-old jumped to her death at an abandoned cement plant in Lakeland after being cyberbullied by fellow students at her school. "Do they not realize what they are causing?" Cowan asked about people who cyberbully. Cowan said that if there's anything she hopes can come out of her granddaughter's death, it's to get the word out about cyberbullying adults. "If you feel that you're being bullied, talk to somebody." She said that universities should have not just counselors available for bullying victims to speak to, but students also, so they can feel more comfortable being open about their issues. "That's what we're trying to get out to the world," she said. "There's more going on than you think with cyberbullying, even at your school." Till is survived by her older sister, Jamie, 23, her mother Vicki Boykins, and a cousin, James, 22, who she was close to. "They were right there together and they were very close," Cowan said of her grandchildren. She said that until James was aboui 10 years old, he actually thought thai Till was his sister. Cowan said the family is holding up "pretty badly,' but hanging in there. A funeral service is being hel< this weekend for anyone who knev her, and Cowan said everyone is in vited back to her house afterwards h hear one of Till's friends sing. "Sh had friends from Panama City t Lakeland, honey," Cowan said. "Sh did not realize how much she wa loved." The service will be held at th Lake Wales Women's Club at 275 I Park Ave. at 1 p.m. A followup story will appe: when more information about Till death becomes available.