August 28, 2015Volume 101, Issue 5nique.

net

OPINIONS

ENTERTAINMENT

technique H2H: Greek Life, good?

News 2

Opinions 6

p9 Ballroom Dancing

Life 10

Entertainment 14

p14

Sports 24

THOMAS LEADS REJUVENATED TECH OFFENSE p22

SPORTS

Top L: Photo by John Nakano Student Publications; Top R: Photo by John Nakano Student Publications; Above: Photo John Nakano Student Publications

LIFE

NEWS

Solar Racing fires up the track

Gerber assumes GTRI

director position

SAMIRA BANDARU
LIFE EDITOR

In temperatures surpassing 100 degrees, Georgia

Techs Solar Racing team
braved the heat to compete against fourteen other
teams in the annual Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP)
track race in Austin, Texas
at the Circuit of the Americas racetrack, consisting of
road style closed courses.
In this worldwide competition, teams solar vehicles
are pushed to the limit in
handling braking, curves,
and accelerating. The FSGP
track race is a three day
event in which strategy,
driver training, teamwork
and, of course, a well-built
vehicle are crucial for success.
FSGP originated from a

larger event: the American

Solar Challenge (ASC).
The ASC is a 1200 to 1800

mile cross country road

race across North America,
and is held every other year

during the summer. During

the years that include an
see FSGP, page 12

HEYINN RHO

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Photo courtesy of Meera Nathan

The Solar Racing team charges the solar panels before a day of racing. The team
beat their previous record with a total of 100 miles during the competition.

On Aug. 1, Dr. Andrew

Gerber assumed his responsibility as the Director of
the Georgia Tech Research
Institute (GTRI).
Gerbers role includes
acting as the chief facilitator
for students, faculty members, and research sponsors
for GTRI. He was selected
from 48 potential candidates by a selection group of
fifteen individuals.
A big part of my job
will be making connections
between different efforts
within GTRI, across
Georgia Tech, and between
Georgia Tech and the outside world to create programs with deep technolog-

ical roots which address key

problems at the local, state,
national and global level,
said Gerber.
The GTRI operation
units serve researchers involved in more than $300
million of problem-solving
projects.
Gerber has multiple layers of experience in national
security technology. Previously an associate head of
the Air and Missile Defense
Technology Division at
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Lincoln Laboratory, he focused primarily
on air and ballistic missile
defense. Gerber has also
headed the Sensor Systems
Division of the Lincoln
Laboratory.
See GERBER, page 5

2 August 28, 2015 technique

// NEWS

technique

ach week, this section of News

will include the coverage of
dierent aspects of bills that
passed through Student Government
This will include the Undergraduate
House of Representatives, Graduate
Student Senate and the Executive
Branch of both government bodies.

The Souths Liveliest College Newspaper

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Brenda Lin
MANAGING EDITOR:
Nick Johnson
NEWS EDITOR:
David Raji
OPINIONS EDITOR:
Vidya Iyer
LIFE EDITOR:
Samira Bandaru
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR:
Trishna Chandarana
SPORTS EDITOR:
Jonathan Long
DESIGN EDITOR:
Brighton Kamen
PHOTO EDITOR:
Tyler Meuter
HEAD COPY EDITOR:
Alexis Brazier
ONLINE EDITOR:
Kripa Chandran
WEB DEVELOPER:
Ross Lindsay
Founded in 1911, the Technique is the student newspaper of the Georgia Institute
of Technology, and is an official publication of the Georgia Tech Board of Student
Publications. The Technique publishes on
Fridays weekly in the fall and spring and
monthly in the summer.
ADVERTISING: Information can be
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10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

COVERAGE REQUESTS : Requests for

coverage and tips should be submitted to

the Editor-in-Chief and/or the relevant
section editor.
Copyright 2015, Brenda Lin, Editorin-Chief, and the Georgia Tech Board
of Student Publications. No part of this
paper may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the
Editor-in-Chief or from the Board of
Student Publications. The ideas expressed
herein are those of the individual authors
and do not necessarily represent the views
of the Board of Student Publications, the
students, staff or faculty of the Georgia
Institute of Technology or the University
System of Georgia. First copy free for
additional copies call (404) 894-2830.

DAVID RAJI

NEWS EDITOR

BILL SUMMARY
BILL
Mens Lacrosse (Summer)
Homecoming Concert (Summer)
Water Ski Club Docking Fees
SGA Retreat
PSA Super Sixes
CanSat Competition

WATER SKI FEES

SGA considered bill 16J001,
which was intended to restore
Techs Water Ski Clubs budget
to its prior level.
Previously, the clubs budget

DAVID RAJI

NEWS EDITOR
ROOFTOP!
At 10:36 p.m. on Sunday,
August 23, a GTPD officer responded to a silent alarm call
from the Alumni House.
Upon arriving at the scene,
the officer, along with another
officer who also responded to
the call, entered the building.
After completing a search of
all of the floors of the Alumni
House, the officers did not find
any evidence of an illegal presence.
The outside of the building
was also checked for any signs

AMOUNT
$3,556
$45,000
$5, 918
$2,698.86
$597.56
$1,500

GSS

UHR

18-1-0
21-0-2
14-0-0
N/A
10-0-0
9-0-0

19-1-1
19-2-0
33-0-0
34-0-0
32-1-0
31-3-0

had been cut because the club

had failed to be in attendance of
a required meeting.
The money requested by
the club was required to cover
docking fees as well as costs to
of break-ins, but no evidence to
indicate this was found.
However, when the two officers investigated the roof of
the building, they located two
individuals residing on the roof.
The two individuals were subsequently escorted off of the roof
region and down towards the
courtyard of the Alumni House
for questioning.
The individuals were discovered to be Tech students following a few questions from the
two officers. When asked why
they were located on the roof
region of the Alumni House,
they answered that they desired
to perceive Atlanta from the roof
region.
The officers informed the two
students, a female and a male,
that it was an act of criminal
trespass for the two to be located
on the roof.
After receiving Code of Conduct Violations, the students
were removed from the area.
IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
On Saturday, Aug. 22, at
approximately 12:29 a.m., a

keep boat and equipment trailers stocked throughout the year.

The total amount requested was
$5,918.
GSS passed the bill unanimously, and, following minimal
discussion, UHR also voted
unanimously to pass the bill.
CRICKET TOURNAMENT
Bill 16J006 was also considered. The purpose of the bill
was to allocate money to the
Pakistan Students Association
in order to allow them to purchase equipment for the annual
PSA Super Sixes cricket tournament.
Among the supplies that
would be bought were bats,
balls, electrical tape, keeping
gloves and steel stumps. The
funding for steel stumps came
from Capital Outlay, because it
was calculated that they would
remain usable for three years or
more.
GSS passed the bill unanimously with a vote of 10-0-0.
UHR, following a short discussion, also passed the bill with a
vote of 32-1-0.
GTPD officer responded to a
report of underage drinking at
the Undergraduate Living Center (ULC).
The officer, after arriving at
the specified location, consulted
with the on-duty Residential
Advisor. She informed him that
a room on the third floor was
generating extra noise than was
normal.
After some investigation,
the officer was able to glean the
knowledge that some of the individuals living in the room
identified were underage. These
students were strongly suspected
to be consuming alcoholic beverages.
Following his entrance into
the ULC room, the officer was
able to have a conversation with
the students who were suspected
to be imbibing alcohol. During
the course of the conversation,
the students admitted that the
drinks that they were consuming indeed contained a nonzero
amount of alcohol.
All of the students in question were then issued Code of
Conduct Violations.

MONICA JAMISON

ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Hardik Patel, a 22-year-old
from the state of Gujarat, led protests about discrimination against
his caste, the Patels (or Patidar
caste) in Ahmedabad according to
the BBC.
The crowds attending Patels
rallies increased from 12,000 on
July 6 to 300,000 supporters on
August 25. Though the Patels control Indias diamond cutting and
polishing industries and many are
successful businessmen and farmers, Patel claims that only five to
10% of Patels are prosperous and
demands quotas for education and
government jobs.
Lower castes receive positions
through affirmative action, which
the Patels claim disadvantages
them. They are seeking classification as Other Backward Classes
(OBC), the middle castes that are
not ostracized but have faced some
social and economic challenges.
Patel claims Mahatma Gandhi
and Sardar Patel as inspirations,
but his threats of force came to
fruition late Tuesday night when
protesters and local residents began fighting. Police later detained
Patel, leading to more clashes.
The Patel community organized a day-long strike, and violence, including the burning of
40 police stations and 70 buses,
has resulted in citizen deaths and
police injuries. Schools, businesses and public transport in and
around Ahmedabad have been
closed; mobile Internet services
have been suspended and curfew
has been enforced.
The Indian Prime Minister,
Narendra Modi, who is also from
Gujarat, has urged people to be
peaceful. Patel is asking for peace
now and claims that [t]he police
have assaulted members of my
community and behaved like terrorists.

sliver

nique.net

Class of Summer 2010, wahoo!

If some members of the fraternity did shout profanity, they should
be expelled from the frat. If this did happen and no one will speak
out it is a shame. Speaking up would take a strong,quality person
Freshman who I helped find her GT1000 classroom - when I
was a freshman, you were starting 7th grade. Good luck at with
that math major and thanks for making me realize how old Im
getting!
lol at the people who think the racial harrassment incident didnt
happen. Why would they make that up?
Only at tech will you hear someone what the optimization algorithm is for an elevator.
Dear Technique, Its my senior year. Pleas give me a crossword so
that I bother to show up to my Friday class.
Dictated but not read.
Hey Technique, yours truly again back from a one year hiatus. So
wheres the crossword that youse guys told me you were working
on? Sincerely, Yours Truly.
No, this is Patrick.
I used to think North Ave elevators were crap. Now compared to
UH theyre pretty magical
Week 1: Jolted awake in a 9 am class and I hear the Professor
saying What do you do with these balls? Ill tell you what I do
with these balls
Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.
Yes, absolutely. But, then, all dogs are awesome.

technique August 28, 2015 3

// NEWS

Over 3,000 freshmen make up class of 2019

MAURA CURRIE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Techs new freshman class is
the biggest in the institutions history, and boast impressive diversity among other things, according
to Rick Clark, Techs Director of
Undergraduate Admissions.
What set accepted students
apart, according to Clark, was not
just academic aptitude, but the
ability to help others on campus
by fostering a beneficial environment. During this past years
admission cycle, the Admissions
department also went to great efforts to seek out and recruit nonengineering students.
We do want to be more curricularly diverse, said Clark. In
the last few years, for example, our
College of Computing is clearly
more well-known and well-respected throughout the world.
And with the other four [non-engineering] colleges in particular,
there are strong, strong efforts for
growth there.
The class of 2019 is not just
the largest Tech has ever seen, but
may well be the largest class for
the foreseeable future, according
to Clark.
This years class is over 3,000
students, Clark said. This isnt
official, but my assumption is
that next year well try to balance
it back down to something like
2,850.
This semester marks the first
in five years that all of Techs oncampus residence halls are on-

line and in use. New dining and

teaching facilities are in construction on west campus, which will
be completed by August 2017.
According to Clark, Tech has
enough space to house and teach
classes of this size. All that those
larger classes really require, according to Clark, is a more creative use of teaching spaces.
While he found its size impressive, Clark was most surprised by
the diversity of this years class.
For example, women comprise
41% of the Tech freshman population this year, which is a record
high for all of the institutions history.
I really put all credit [for this]
with our current female students
and the Womens Recruitment
Team, and their almost grassrootstype effort, Clark said. All those
coffees they had, individual coffees and individual tours and calls
and handwritten letters all the
big stuff [that the admissions office] was doing was important, but
that is where I felt like it made a
difference.
According to Clark, the class
of 2019 also has much ethnic diversity. Of the freshmen, 49% are
Caucasian, 25% are Asian, 8% are
Hispanic, 7% are African-American, and there are 11% other or
blended, and this data would suggest that Tech looks to continue
its trend of welcoming students
of all different creeds and backgrounds to the Tech community.
Unfortunately, Clark did also
note that building a diverse com-

Photo courtesy of Rob Felt

A group of freshmen pose with Buzz for a photo at New Student Convocation, which took
place earlier this month. The Tech class of 2019 is exceedingly diverse, according to Clark.

munity is not without conflicts

and growing pains. He addressed
how incidents, including the controversy over an alleged incident
of racial harassment involving
members of a Tech fraternity, continue to be problems.
Its embarrassing. Its so unfortunate, so saddening that we
would have students who are academically so smart, and yet can
act so ignorant and so classless,
Clark said.

According to Clark, it would

be disingenuous to suggest that
such conflicts do not exist at Tech,
in the South, or in the nation at
large, and these incidents demonstrate why diversity is such a valuable thing.
By creating what we have
here, theres an opportunity for
people from homogenous communities to be exposed to curricular diversity, gender diversity,
socioeconomic diversity and racial

diversity, said Clark. Hopefully

what we achieve here is tolerance
and understanding.
For the freshman class of 2019,
there were 27,270 applicants from
all over the world during the last
admissions cycle, and 32% were
accepted. These numbers make
this past admissions cycle the
most competitive in Techs history, as they were respectively the
highest and lowest ever for the institution.

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Cure it!

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4 August 28, 2015 technique

// NEWS

Dining commons to be built on west campus

DAVID RAJI

NEWS EDITOR
In what is currently a parking
lot in front of the Caldwell and
Folk residence halls, the West
Village dining commons, which
will include additional areas for
music practice as well as studying,
will be constructed.
[The commons is] a 54,000
square foot $29 million project on
west campus, said Rich Steele,
Senior Director of Auxiliary Services at Tech. Were just moving
into design at this point. About
10,000 square feet of the building
will be for academic use. Were
working with the music department for some of the programs
that will be occupying the space
primarily, but it will be multipurpose space.
According to Steele, the commons will be ready for use starting in Fall of 2017, allowing for a
year in design and a year in construction. He emphasized that the
commons would be mix between
a student center, a dining hall and
Clough.
Well have small study rooms,
multipurpose meeting rooms, very
open dining spaces, said Steele.
[Those dining spaces] will not
be controlled access dining operations like North Ave, Brittain
and Woodruff where you have
to swipe or pay as you get in the
door. This will be more like a food
court, where you would transact
at each concept. Were working on
the details, but we think we have
some novel approaches where students on a meal plan can easily eat
there and get a full meal.
However, unlike the current
dining halls on campus, the commons will not function as an allyou-can-eat facility, according to
Steele. He added that there was a
distinct possibility that students

who were on a meal plan would be

able to receive second portions of
food at the commons.
Auxiliary services is currently
finalizing what concepts (eateries)
will be present at the dining commons.
We know that downstairs,
were going to have some kind of
brand-name retail plus an area
thats going to be grab-and-go and
convenience store stuff, Steele
said. Well close the Westside
Market and essentially relocate
those services into the West Village. Upstairs, on the rooftop,
we hope to have another branded
concept. The branded concepts are
a little bit tougher to nail down, so
were working with brands to see
who is interested in being in these
locations.
Within the West Village, there
will be dining on all three levels
of the commons. The grab-and-go
area of the lower floor will feature hot and cold food bars. Fresh
fruit among other items would be
available for purchase in this area.
For the roof, another brand name
concept will possibly be sought,
according to Steele.
According to Steele, some of
the ideas for the non-branded eateries have already been conceptualized.
We have something called
Brazen Beast, which is more of a
grill and barbecue type concept,
Steele said. [Another concept will
feature] rice bowls, noodle bowls,
and pho. Mindful, [will include]
healthier eating and non-allergen
foods.
Two other options, Sauce and
Savor and Local Chefs will focus on pizza and feature Techs
chefs, respectively. Steele noted
that these ideas have not been finalized, and that they are works
in progress. Despite this, some of
the concepts have had a number of

Position Openings
REVIEWERS
SECTION EDITORS
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
MARKETING ASSISTANTS
Apply at
gttower.org/about
Questions?
editor@gttower.org

menu items developed.

Tech is also working with a
consulting group that specializes in developing branded food
concepts, according to Steele. He
added that this will allow the look
and design of the food options in
West Village to be more high end.
Steele also added that the West
Village would be designed so that
individuals who made use of the
building would experience both
indoor and outdoor space. To this
effect, many large openings to the
outside would be integrated into
the structure.
For the music department,
there will be choral and jazz practice rooms located in the West
Village commons. According to
Steele, these rooms will be specifi-

cally designed will choral and jazz

practice in mind, but will also be
available for other music groups.
A landscaped area will also be
developed in front of the commons. According to Steele, a
lawn outside the commons would
be desirable. He noted that this
would provide for the possibility
of the commons hosting outdoor
movies or other activities.
We anticipate that we are
going to connect the third floor
[of West Village] with the top of
the Curran Street parking deck,
Steele said. We also anticipate
that we are going to connect
the second floor with Folk and
Caldwell so that there is easy access. The lower level is on the
street level, on Eighth Street and

McMillan.
Steele added that Auxiliary
Services wants to incorporate individual study spaces into West
Village. The spaces would be
similar to the breakout rooms in
Clough.
A group of students will soon
be assembled to assess some of the
current designs for West Village.
According to Steele, this is a key
step because some past Auxiliary
Services projects that havent been
utilized by students. Steele pointed to the example of students requesting 24-hour dining and the
subsequent opening of North Avenue dining hall. However, It was
rarely used after 2:00 a.m. Steele
hopes to avoid similar mistakes
with the new commons.

Photo by David Raji Student Publications

The West Village commons will be located space currently occupied by the parking lot on
eighth street outside Caldwell and Folk residence halls. It will also feature areas for studying.

technique August 28, 2015 5

// NEWS

GERBER

FROM PAGE 1

It also seems fitting Andy is

the new director, given his formal education as a physicist, since
GTRI has its roots in the School
of Physics and many of the early
directors were physics professors,
said Steve Cross, an Executive
Vice President for Research at
Tech and the current interim Director of GTRI.
A member of the Lincoln
Laboratory in 1988, Gerber later
contributed to creating the laboratorys Aegis Ballistic Missile
Defense program. He advanced
to become a leader of the ALTAIR
radar located in the island of Kwajalein among other Marshall Islands for the U.S. missile testing
range.
Gerbers expertise is primarily
in the field of space surveillance

programs. His other past titles include Intergovernmental Personnel Act Appointee. While holding
that title, Gerber worked mainly
with the Navys Program Executive Office for Theater Surface
Combatants.
I think scientists and engineers share many common attributes problem solving being a
key one but physicists in particular have a tendency to try to
reduce problems to their simplest
terms, Gerber said. That sometimes provides a clarity, from
which engineering solutions can
then be derived. That being said,
one of the things that I love about
Georgia Tech is that problems are
approached from a wide variety of
angles including pure science,
engineering, design, policy, even
arts and humanities and you
get many different views to shape

Photo courtesy of GTRI

Dr. Andrew Gerber began directing GTRI on Aug. 1. He looks

to continue the institutes work towards revolutionary findings.

the solutions.
Gerber has collaborated with
GTRI researchers prior to his
transition to director of the institute. Earlier this year, he visited
GTRI and it was at that point in
time that Gerber became significantly more interested in GTRIs
activities and projects.
Some of the projects that
GTRI is working on are truly
astounding and no, they are
not all classified! Gerber said.
I would encourage students to
come over and take a look at some
of the work GTRI is doing, and I
anticipate creating a variety of opportunities for students to do that
over the coming year.
The majority of GTRI research
is based on government sponsordriven initiatives. According to
Gerber, despite the overall decline
in federal research funding, requests for research from sponsors
have not necessarily seen a similar
decline.
Now that were taking on
quite a few larger-scale prototyping efforts, were learning how
work together across laboratory
boundaries, Gerber said. When
a big new effort comes in, were
learning how to find the best talent, across GTRI and also across
all of Georgia Tech, in order to
think through and execute these
large efforts and produce the highest quality research products.
Producing well articulated
problem statements for thoughtshaping processes at the senior
leadership level is yet another important area that GTRI looks to
target and work towards, according to Gerber.
Basic research in physics has
historically overlapped with the
U.S. governments interest to
strengthen national security. Gerber noted that the development of
radar systems during World War
II was a result of work conducted
by physics departments at institutions such as the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.

The George Wingfield Semmes

Memorial Scholarship
$17,000 Scholarship Fund | Awarded to a Top Winner & up to two Runners Up
Applicants must display:

Outstanding leadership qualities

Academic achievement
Strong character
A true love of Georgia Tech

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Full-time or co-op student graduating after Fall 15
Junior or Senior standing by the end of Fall 15
Minimum 3.0 GPA

For an application, please visit anak.gtorg.gatech.edu/semmes

Applications/supporting documents deadline:
Monday, September 7, 2015 at 3:00 pm to the Tech Tower - Room 301.
Questions? Please email gtsemmes@gmail.com

Researchers find bugs

in common browsers
HASIT DEWAN

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Recently, researchers from the
College of Computing at Tech
who published a paper including
information on a certain technique which can be used to detect security flaws were awarded
the Internet Defense Award from
Facebook along with a $100,000
prize from the social networking
site.
The research team, consisting
of Ph.D. students Byoungyoung
Lee and Chengyu Song, as well as
professors Taesoo Kim and Wenke Lee, discovered eleven previously unknown internet browser
security flaws. Among these were
two flaws in Firefox and nine in
libstdc++.
The researchers paper, Type
Casting Verification: Stopping an
Emerging Attack Vectory, identifies an emerging class of security
vulnerabilities in C++ programs.
Programs written in this code
typically use both static and dynamic casts when one data type is
changed a different one.
The team of researchers from
Tech discovered that certain bad
casts can actually create corrupt
pointers that can be accessed by
hackers and, in turn, be used to
corrupt memory processes. The
researchers paper proposes a
novel technique that can be used
to detect these types of casting issues.
In fact, the prototype that the
researchers have developed already
is showing results, having proven
capable of locating and recognizing the previously undetected
security vulnerabilities in Firefox
and libstdc++. Those particular
security issues of the browsers

that were discovered by the Tech

researchers have since been remedied, theoretically making Firefox
and libstdc++ safer pieces of software for users.
It is time for the Internet
community to start addressing
the more difficult, deeper security
problems, said Wenke Lee. The
security research community has
been working on various ways to
detect and fix memory safety bugs
for decades, and has made progress. Our work studied the much
harder and deeper bugs and our
tools discovered serious security
bugs in widely used software.
Due to the Tech researchers
contribution to increasing the
safety of browsers used by many,
Facebook selected the team from
a pool of applicants from all over
the world to receive the prize.
Additionally, Facebook chose to
award the team of researchers a total of $100,000, double the prize
money the previous years winner
received. The social media company felt strongly that this research
(and the information gleaned
through it) could potentially have
far-reaching and very important
effects and impacts in the cyber
security world.
Facebook first initiated the
Internet Defense Prize in 2014 in
close partnership with the USENIX Association (officially The
Advanced Computing Systems
Association) in order to effectively celebrate contributions to
the protection and defense of the
internet. The USENIX Security Awards Committee works in
conjunction with certain representatives from Facebook for the
purpose of deciding the ultimate
winner of the Internet Defense
Award prize.

Opinions
OUR VIEWS | Consensus Opinion

The question isnt who is going to

let me; its who is going to stop me.
Ayn Rand

Textbooks are too expensive

Providing students access to affordable textbooks

Textbooks have gotten more expensive
for college students. Although an incredibly useful resource, many students forgo
owning or renting textbooks due to their
exorbitant prices. Thus, students resort
to finding free unofficial online copies
of their textbooks or in other cases completely miss out on a valuable teaching
tool. While setting textbook prices is out
of Techs jurisdiction, there are steps the
Institute and professors can take in order
to minimize the amount spent on books.
One solution is to have a thorough evaluation as to whether the latest edition of
a book is necessary. Not all professors insist on having the most recent edition, but
many do. When publishers release newer
editions of the modifications are trivial.
If one of the minor changes is a crucial
aspect of class material, then professors
should just provide students with PDF
copies of the changed section. Or, professors should be more transparent about the

changes in the book and describe exactly

what has changed so that students can determine for themselves whether spending
money on a new book is worth the money.
Another possible solution is to have a
textbook payment plan that students can
enroll into at any time in the semester.
Like a meal plan, this will be an additional
fee that students can opt to partake in to
have easy access to textbooks. Under this
plan, students will be provided access to
online versions of their textbooks that
they will lose access to once the semester
ends. This plan allows flexibility to those
students who do not wish to be apart of it.
The easiest and most logical solution to
implement would be to simply have more
textbooks available in the library to check
out and to increase number of students
that can access an online book at the same
time. Having a two-hour cap on checking
out a textbook does not provide students
enough time to review the material.

The Consensus Opinion reflects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board of the
Technique, but not necessarily the opinions of individual editors.

technique editorial board

Brenda Lin EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Nick Johnson MANAGING EDITOR
David Raji NEWS EDITOR
Jonathan Long SPORTS EDITOR
Samira Bandaru LIFE EDITOR
Tyler Meuter PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Vidya Iyer OPINIONS EDITOR

Trishna Chandarana ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Brighton Kamen DESIGN EDITOR
Ross Lindsay WEB DEVELOPER

TOPICAL STOCK MARKET JOKES BY COLLIN CALDWELL

technique

OPINIONS EDITOR: Vidya Iyer

Friday,
August 28, 2015

Racism not tolerated on campus

Georgia Tech stands as a beacon of reason and
rational debate/skepticism. If this is the level were
willing to stoop to over a tweet I can say Im ashamed
to be a student here.

GtAnon
...you have the band playing Dixie in White and
Gold. If nothing else, it makes Georgia Tech come
across on TV as a backwoods, redneck joint, instead of
a progressive, world-class institution.

Tronido
Racial harassment met with demonstration
I, as an older white conservative male, am appalled
that this kind of alleged behavior occurs. Not to be
overly sensitive, but this is beyond the pale.

OldWhiteConservative
...by reading this article and seeing the effort
being made on campus by victims and non-victims
regarding the racial discrepancies, I applaud you all
for your courage and integrity.

Joshua Blackcherokeenavajo McC

...the fraternity should not be implicated, but only
those members responsible...in this situation, there
are around 70 other guys in that organization who are
completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

formerjacket
Hopefully this will at least raise social awareness
regarding the issue of racism on the Gatech campus.
Most racism is unseen, subtle, cannot be described or
proven via physical evidence.

Joshua Blackcherokeenavajo McC

Tech and USG address faculty pay gap
It may be totally innocent, but at first glance it sure
looks like Bras is deliberately providing misleading
data by comparing average Tech faculty salaries to
median salaries at peer institutions.

ece2014
Write to us:

letters@nique.net
Got something to say? Then let
your voice be heard with the Technique. Sliver at Nique.net, tweet us
@the_nique or check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/thenique. We
want to hear your opinion and want
to make it known to all of campus.
We also welcome your letters in
response to Technique content as well
as topics relevant to campus. We will
print letters on a timely and spaceavailable basis.
Each week we look for letters that

are responses to or commentaries on

content found within the pages of the
Technique. Along with these letters,
we are open to receiving letters that
focus on relevant issues that currently
affect Georgia Tech as a university, including its campus and student body.
When submitting letters we ask
that you include your full name, year
(1st, 2nd, etc.) and major. We ask that
letters be thought provoking, well
written and in good taste. We reserve
the right to both reject or edit letters
for length and style.
For questions, comments or concern, contact the Opinions Editor at
opinions@nique.net.

technique August 28, 2015 7

// OPINIONS

The battlefield has been set for World War III

The last major war among
global superpowers ended on
September 2, 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allies,
bringing an end to World War
II. This was the same year that
Arthur Clarke, author of 2001:
A Space Odyssey, had the notion of putting satellites in orbit
around Earth.
Fast forward seventy years
to today and you will see that
a lot has changed. Humans are
no longer confined to Earth and
neither is the possibility of war.
Thousands of satellites actively circle the globe transmitting our favorite TV shows,
phone calls to friends, and also
military secrets. Communication satellites link troops on the
ground with planes overhead
and provide GPS navigation to
missiles flying to targets.
The Cold War initiated the
space race, putting the United
States and the Soviet Union at
the leading edge of space frontier at the time. However, China
has now turned into a space
power as well.
China has sent hundreds of
nd satellites into orbit. In space
they have their own network of

Humans are no longer

confined to Earth and
neither is the possibility of
war.

TYLER MEUTER

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
spy communications along with
plans to have an operational
space station by 2022, known
as the Tiangong. More impressively, the creation of the
Beidou2/Compass navigation
network started this year. The
Beidou 2/Compass will give
China and Pakistan, one of
Chinas military clients, a GPS
with accuracy of 10 centimeters.
With the superpower nations of the world all having a
space presence, war with a space
battlefield is not out of the question. United States Defense
Secretary Robert Work points
out that the next 25 years is going to be a lot more challenging
than the last 25 years from a national security perspective. Our

space constellation or our space

capabilities are going to be contested in a way that they havent
been before. And we need to be
prepared for that eventuality.
Works remark does not come
without reason. Nations around
the globe know the importance
satellites play. They know the
benefits of being able to destroy
another countries communication and military capabilities.
Both the United States and
China have carried out tests that
prove their ability to shoot down
satellites in space using groundbased, long-range missiles.
During the Cold War, a Soviet Union satellite was rumored
to have a canon mounted onboard for potential use. Current

research at UC Irvine is exploring the idea of mounting a laser

on the international Space Station that can be used to destroy
space junk (or enemies).
Non-conventional weapons
are also a concern in space. With
cyber-warfare, the integrity of a
satellites software could be comprised and information could
be placed in the hands of an
opposing country. Proving this
point, both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have had
satellites hacked by the Chinese.
With possibility of space
conflict General John Hyten,
commander of the Air Force
Space Command, says, The
United States must prepare for
the battles high above Earth
whether we like it or not.
In hopes to be one step ahead
of countries, the Pentagon has
announced plans to create an
operations center to fend off
Chinese and Russian attacks on
U.S. military and government
satellites and increase spending
by $5 billion on space warfare
systems.

How can Tech more effectively communicate

with students?

RAJIV JAINI

FIFTH-YEAR PH.D. CHBE

Yik Yak

Spend money on useful Weve got 99 problems,

resources in universities but alcohol aint one
College is really expensive. inflation over the past several
It seems like theres hardly a decades, so declines in public
day that goes by when another funding clearly dont tell the
article or study isnt published whole story.
about how expensive college is,
Even when you factor in the
and how crushmerit and need
ing the debt
based scholartaken out to pay
The problem with ships a college
for it is for gradgives out, the
access to college isnt cost of tuition
uates. Not only
is college expen- really that its too hard has still risen
sive, its much
much faster than
to borrow money... inflation.
more expensive
than it used to
So where has
MAX KALTMAN the money been
be. A number of
presidential canBUSINESS MANAGER going? The andidates have sposwer is controken about to the
versial.
Some
need to make it easier to attend people blame the cost increases
college. Hilary Clinton, for ex- on higher numbers of and pay for
ample, recently unveiled a plan administrators. Others blame
that would lower interest rates schools for building expensive
on student loans. Im sure her facilities Its much easier to say
plan would help a lot of people, where it hasnt gone, which is
but it seems to me that its treat- direct instructional costs. While
ing the symptom rather than the its difficult to determine how
disease.
much a school spends on labs or
The problem with access to classrooms, it doesnt seem like
college in this country isnt re- professors are being paid subally that its too hard to borrow stantially more. Salary growth
money, its that college costs far of full time faculty has genertoo much.
ally met or exceeded inflation
There are a lot of reasons that over the last three decades, but
college has gotten more expen- it hasnt grown nearly as quickly
sive over the last couple of years, as tuition has. Professors remain
and particularly in the case of relatively poorly compensated,
public institutions, some of especially when compared to the
them are outside their control. value their work adds to society.
While state level public fund- Colleges have also made increasing for higher education has ing use of untenured adjunct
actually increased over the last professors who have no doubt
several decades, in both real and pushed down the cost of actunominal terms, far more people ally teaching students.
are enrolled in college than ever
Regardless of the reason that
before, and funding has shrunk costs have increased, I think the
on a per student basis. Colleges solution is the same. The fedhave had to make up the differ- eral government should require
ence, usually by charging higher schools that take federal money
tuition. This has been especially to spend a proportion of their
pronounced over the last de- budgets on direct instruction or
cade, because of cuts that were research. It might not stop the
made during financial crisis. But increase in tuition, but at least
tuition at private institutions wed be spending it on somehas also grown much faster than thing worthwhile.

I was fifteen when I got my decides to have a baby, its crazy

drivers permit. At the time, I to think that someone at the age
was so terribly excited, a fresh- of 16 or even 19 can willingly
man in high school and ready to make the decision alter their
prove I was an adult and respon- life forever by having a child of
sible enough to
their own. They
drive a 5500 lb
would,
while
My
issue
is
...
the
Ford Expedition
still barely more
baffling polarity than a child
u n s up e r v i s e d .
In just over a
have
of when we give themselves,
year, thats what
the responsibilI was doing a
our young adults ity of feeding a
sixteen year old
providing
responsibility. child,
wielding enough
healthcare
for
force to tow a
a child, giving
ALEXIS BRAZIER emotional supboat...or crush
COPY EDITOR port and stabila pedestrian, or
break some other
ity to a child,
drivers neck in an accident. The etc. Yet this is a relatively comidea is frightening, especially as monplace affair; I personally
I look to my younger sister who knew five people who were pregintends to get her learners per- nant and intending on keeping
mit in just a few months. I still their baby. Many of these girls
help her with her math home- were marrying their high school
work on factoring, and she is sweethearts and already starting
almost ready to drive a car? It their lives as adults.
makes me anxious just thinking
My issue is not specifically
about it, what if she hurts some- that we allow our teenagers to
one or someone hurts her? I fear drive too soon or that Amerifor her safety but know that its cans teens have too much sexual
a necessary step towards her be- freedom, but rather the baffling
coming an adult and will do my polarity of when we give our
best to guide her along the way. young adults responsibility
Not only do Americans drive when it comes to these issues
at an early age though, many of versus alcohol or even marijuaus are making serious decisions na. For some reason, the U.S.
about intimacy in relationships has a higher drinking age than
as well. Teens can consent to almost any other first world
sex in the United States as early countries. While we are considas sixteen. Whether or not we ered legal adults at 18 in most
horny teenagers fully realized states, somehow we are still unit, this means taking on the re- qualified to make the choice to
sponsibility of dealing with a have a glass of wine with dinner,
potential life altering STD, or or a beer with friends until 21.
the repercussions of an unin- American teens can be legally
tended pregnancy.
coerced into giving birth to chilIf a teen gets pregnant as a dren, make the decision to get
minor, in 21 of our 50 states, married, and drive a potentially
that teen cannot have an abor- lethal weapon of a vehicle, all by
tion without parental approval. the age of 18. Somehow though,
Devoid of either this or a judicial we are not allowed to purchase
bypass, the law can effectively a beer on a Friday evening. The
force the teen to carry their reality of the situation is humorchild to full term. Even if teen ous in its absurdity.

MELISSA HUNTING
FIRST-YEAR CE

Memos to teachers, who

would hand them out to
students

DONGJAE LEE
THIRD-YEAR AE

More active social media

ANNA CATHRYN FINCH

FOURTH-YEAR INTA

Send texts first for

emergencies
Photos by Tyler Meuter Student Publications

8 August 28, 2015 technique

// OPINIONS

Disappointed by the entity

HOT or NOT
that is Donald Trump
OUR VIEWS | HOT OR NOT

Watching Donald Trump

run for president is much
like watching a train wreck in
action...

Long Mail Lines

The mail lines are absolutely

ridiculous. Even though there
are now two lines. It seems as
though the entire mail process has just become more
inefficient. Not to mention,
students have to wait a couple
extra days to get their packages
since the mail room is not able
to sort through everything due
to the large influx of packages.
Could we please get an IE on
this, already?

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

On my most recent ride from

the airport to the school I have
called my home for the past couple of years, my cab driver and I
got onto the topic of the presidential race. Now, normally, I try to
avoid politics in conversation. Too
many friendships are ruined by
talking about politics; too many
unnecessary arguments started
over trivial differences in opinions. However, what started us on
this topic was Donald Trump.
Hes a spectacle, said my
cab driver. Hes a spectacle and
THATs why we watch him.
Its true. Watching Donald
Trump run for president is much
like watching a train wreck in action: so horrific that looking away
is no longer an option.
Before I go any further, I want
to note that Trump is ahead in the
polls right now and I am aware of
this depressing fact. What I am
referring to, however, is all of the
businesses that have withdrawn
from their partnerships with
Trump: Macys, NBC, ESPN,
NASCAR, PGA, etc.
These businesses do not want
to want to be associated with the
imploding circus of a man that is
Donald Trump. Between his racist and sexist comments and the

way he deals with disagreements,

who would?
The problem with Trump
what horrifies me most about his
presidential campaign, really is
that he has no filter nor does he
seem to have any semblance of
maturity. If I am more mature
than a presidential candidate who
has a good 50 years on me, then I
would say thats a problem.
Should Trump become president, what guarantee do we, as a
nation, have that he wont post to
twitter that some important foreign dignitary is a dummy or a
total loser like he has with his
political opposition and detractors
thus far?
Furthermore, as president he
cannot boast well I have billions
of dollars, so you have to listen to
me because he would not be representing himself, but rather our
country, which is trillions of dollars in debt. He may have billions,
but were missing trillions.
Additionally, Trump continuously praises his good business
sense and potentially exaggerated billion dollar net-worth, but
several of the businesses under
his umbrella have gone bankrupt
over the years e.g. Trumps
Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in

TECHS ON CAMPUS
PRINT RESOURCE!!!

Ha

nd
bo
o

ks
No

M
NA AIL S
ME ER
TA VIC
GS E
S

teb

ers

It seemed like our school

would only be known for our
amazing academics for the
longest time, but last years
football season changes that.
We are now ranked sixteenth
in the nation and are looking
very hopeful for this upcoming season. So, everyone rush
to the football stadiums and
cheer on our fellow Jackets because it can only go up from
here, Go Jackets!

Although not as frequently

trafficked as other restaurants,
it is truly sad to see the only
Coca-Cola serving Pizza Hut
shut down. Pizza Hut has
been a staple on Techs campus for quite some time, but
unfortunately it just could
not compete with places like
Panda Express and Chik-fil-a.
But thats okay, change can be
good. Pizza Hut, you will be
forever missed.

Inv
Po ita
Br st C tion
oc ar s
hu ds
res

Sixteenth in sports

TRISHNA CHANDARANA

Death of Pizza Hut

nn

It is no surprise that our

school excels in academics,
but to be seventh in the world
is a remarkable feat. With our
incoming class having higher
test scores than the last this
should seem like no surprise.
In addition to a smart group of
students we are also incredibly
lucky to have brilliant professors and supportive faculty to
make this institution the best
it could possibly be.

CO
CA UN
MP TE
US R C
& U ARD
S S
MA
IL

oo

ks

Ba

Seventh for academics

1991, Trump Hotels and Casinos

Resorts in 2004 and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009. If
Trump and his board of directors
cant keep their businesses afloat,
how can we ever hope that he and
his future cabinet would be able to
keep our country afloat?
Moreover, when the facts are
laid out, Trumps father laid the
foundation for him to build his
fortune, amassing the wealth
needed for Trump to start off in
life. This means that he isnt necessarily a self-made man. Most
people would do relatively well
if their fathers helped kick start
them with enough money to fill a
trust fund.
When it comes down to it, it
is becoming extremely difficult to
consider Trump a serious, legitimate candidate for president. On
the other hand, he is winning in
the poles right now. The more I
look at his stance on the key issues
and the more I listen to the things
he says, the more disappointed I
become.
I am disappointed that a man
his age thinks this kind of petty
behavior is acceptable. I am disappointed that someone who is theoretically a serious candidate for
president of the United States of
America can act so disrespectfully
and so tactless and still be considered a frontrunner in this race. I
am disappointed that a man who
bad-mouths the moderator at a
presidential debate among other
women thinks he is the best person to be the face of our country.
I am severely disappointed in the
entity that is Donald Trump because to me, he seems to represent
everything that is wrong with our
country. And hes winning.

CONTACT US TODAY!!!
404-894-3570

www.pcs.gatech.edu
pcs@oit.gatech.edu

technique August 28, 2015 9

// OPINIONS

NO

YES
BRIGHTON KAMEN
DESIGN EDITOR

When anyone joins a

new group of people, be
that a sorority or school
club, they stay because
they found a set of people they mesh with. This
is no different for Greek
life, whose members
join for reasons ranging from meeting new
people to philanthropy
to nabbing leadership
roles.
I am not going to sit
here and root through
every stereotype. I know
that people might see
my letters and assume
I coordinate my nails to
my outfit and am only
here to party (both of
which are true, the former just once for fun
and the latter only on
Fridays), but what they
do not know is that
when I came to Tech, I
was terrified. I did Rush
because I wanted to
meet people outside of
my major at this nervewracking new place.
A week later, I joined
a sorority because of
their diversity and because they seemed like
the kind of people who
would rather I be myself than change to fit in
with their crowd.
Now, a year later,
I am roommates with

EARLVIN SOLOMERO

two of my sisters, played

Severus Snape in a skit
that earned us first place
at Greek Sing, built
muscle by going to Tug
workouts, traveled Europe with some of the
girls, and plan on going for a leadership role.
I have been to mixers,
date nights, sisterhood
retreats in the mountains, and formals, and
I have met so many
people I would not even
know come across otherwise.
My experience is far
from unique. Greek life
unites people with common interests and gives
people a sense of belonging (and food!) they
need when navigating
such an academically
rigorous school like
ours. The alumni networks offer connections
in the business world,
and the leadership positions add experience to a
resume. I am not saying
Greek life is a requirement for enjoying your
time at Tech, but one
fourth of the people here
found a two- or threeletter home and people
they will stay close to
even after graduation.
Greek life offers another
way to get involved on
campus and make a difference through philanthropy.

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Douchebags,
parties, alcohol, sex, drugs,
rich and entitled are
the words that come to
mind when I think of
fraternities. Now I am
in no way anti-Greek,
nor do I have anything
against individuals who
choose to join. It would
be foolish to say that the
Greek system doesnt offer any rewarding benefits.
Greek life provide
members with lifelong
friends, a vast pool of
connections and a community that facilitates
leadership skills and
personal growth. Also,
contrary to popular belief, Greek members are
academically more successful than non-Greek
members. They also do
plenty of philanthropic
events and help raise
significant amounts of
money for good causes.
Honestly
though,
some of these guys suck.
Just look at recent headlines. At Penn State, the
Kappa Delta Rho fraternity was shut down
for posting photos online of nude girls. At
Syracuse University, a
pledge suffered frostbite after being forced
to crawl in the snow at

freezing temperatures.
And worst of all, there
have been four student
deaths caused by alcohol or hazing-related
incidents.
I understand that
there are many stigmas
about the Greek community, but cases like
these dont seem to be
going away. Not only
do these incidents give
the Greek community a
negative reputation, but
the universities involved
also receive undesirable
publicity.
For example, look at
what allegedly happened
just a few weeks ago involving Phi Delta Theta.
They felt so comfortable
in their environment
that they thought it
was completely acceptable to harass a black
female student. It would
be naive for us to deny
the fact that there is a
deep-rooted, lingering
culture of alcohol abuse,
sexual assault, elitism,
and racism in the Greek
system.
So, regardless of the
many positive impacts
Greek life may have,
does it really outweigh
the atrocity stemming
from the awful events
of emotional trauma,
injuries, and fatalities of
members and their victims?

EMEKE NKADI
THIRD-YEAR CS

Open forum hosted by

faculty

JEAN-GUILLAUME DURAND
FIRST-YEAR PHD. AE

Administrative presence in
person

Photos by Tyler Meuter Student Publications

CAMPUS SAFETY DAY

 





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Life

LIFE EDITOR:

Samira Bandaru
ASSTISTANT LIFE EDITOR:

Alex Covington

life@nique.net

Library Renewal Project: Good or Bad?

With a new school year comes new renovations on campus. Read some of Tech students' opinions on the library
renewal and the relocation of books. 411

technique

10

Friday,
August 28, 2015

Jen and Jeff discuss plans for new year

ALEX COVINGTON
ASSISTANT EDITOR

As the 2015-2016 school year

kicks into motion, the Undergraduate President and Vice President
prepare to create a new executive
board to faithfully represent the
student body. Jennifer Abrams,
fourth-year Public Policy major
and current president, and Jefferson Losse, fourth-year Mechanical Engineering major and current
vice president, sat down with the
Technique to talk about plans and
preparations for the new school
year.
Technique: What new initiative are you most excited for the
new year?
Jeff: Two things that weve already done so far that Im already
really excited for are the campus safety app and a new mental
health portal. The app is rolling
out the first of September and is
now fully functional, so students
can go and download that right
now if they would like to. Its just
LiveSafe, if youre familiar with it,
but that will replace JacketGuardian. Weve also been working with
the counseling center. I know in
our platform we discussed the
new mental health portal for the
website through the counseling
center. That is now live at united.
gatech.edu and has been in progress for the past year now.
Technique: Whats new with
the mobile app?
Jeff: This kind of runs with
our platform in the campaign
that we want to make things
that you can use as a student as
user friendly as possible. When
you pull up this app, it takes two

seconds to boot. Its a very simple

UI that you can use. One of the
big strong points of this is there

name down whenever they report

a crime or anything that might
not necessitate as a crime. It might

Photo courtesy of Megna Saha

Abrams and Losse in front of the Campanile after SGA elections

results. They emphasized connecting with the student body.

are anonymous tips and reporting. Through surveys weve found

that people dont want to put their

just be something minimal, that

they dont think is necessary to
call the police for. So with this

app, you can report any number of items, and itll go right to
GTPD, not to the Atlanta Police
Department, because when you
call 911 itll go to the Atlanta Police Department, and then theyll
go to the GTPD, so theres a lag in
communications.
Technique: What exactly has
the Health and Wellness Task
Force been up to? (The Health
and Wellness Task Force was one
of the proposals of Jen and Jeffs
campaign platform.)
Jen: That committee falls under the vice president of student
life. In the first semester their biggest role is going to be to helping
to usher in the director for the
Center for Community Health
and Well Being. That person will
be chosen in the next two or three
weeks; theres been a national
search going on since last spring.
And that committee, [under] that
person, will really be working
with this new center that we have.
What are our students like, what
do they need, what do we see as
the needs of our students in the
area of wellness? They have been
meeting with the directing staff
over at the CRC, health promotions and STAMPS, and identifying the ways that they have wanted to reach out to students in the
past and maybe didnt have the
best ideas or ways to do that. Basically, how can SGA really be helping more in that area of campus,
to reach out more to our students.
Technique: What can SGA do
for students that students arent
aware of?
Jeff: We cover such a broad
expanse on campus. I would reSee SGA, page 13

Sharing embarrassing first year stories

TOMMASO PIERONCINI
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

As a Freshman, nothing makes

you feel more comfortable and
reassured at FASET or other orientation meetings than asking
upperclassmen about their firstyear and how they lived it. Im not
talking about how well they did
in their classes, how many friends
they made their first day or how
cool their fraternitys initiation
process was. The truly good stories are those that were lived with
uneasiness and embarrassment.
While successes and achievements
can be inspiring, the tales of mistakes are often more instructive
and always provide a good laugh.
Here are some embarrassing first
year experiences that sophomores,
juniors and seniors agreed to
share, though anonymously.
A fourth-year ME major from
India had an incredibly uncomfortable first day in Atlanta.
He put it very mildly: I came
a little unprepared: I landed at the
airport by myself with three pieces
of luggage, no map or mobile internet and little or no information
about check-in.
He then proceeded to ask
around for directions to the cam-

pus, and luckily for him, local Atlantans cordiality helped him out.
But after getting off the MARTA
at North Avenue, he realized his
misfortunes had just begun.
Loaded like a mule, I came
out to the scorching sunlight.
It was mid-August, around two
oclock and there wasnt a cloud in
the sky. Needless to say I started
sweating within a minute.
Oblivious of the check-in instructions, he didnt get his keys
at the ECHO office and couldnt
settle down. Instead, he dragged
his luggage half across campus all
the way to Clough Undergraduate Center, where International
check-in takes place the week before classes.
I climbed Freshman Hill under the burning sun and I finally
showed up in front of the OIE
staff exhausted and dripping with
sweat: it was a pretty embarrassing scene.
Fortunately during move-in
week campus swarms of helpful
assistants, and he was taken care
of without hesitation.
Something a lot of us have experienced as Freshmen is locking
ourselves out of our dorm room,
but this second-year EE major has
definitely had it worse than all of
us.

It was my fourth day on campus and I was living in Smith.

That morning I woke up early
and went for a shower: I left my
clothes in the room, I wrapped up

in my towel and locked the door

behind me.
Worried about his shower (in
Smith, fighting for a shower can

See FRESH, page 14

Making a good
first impression
DAPHNE CHEN

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The beginning of the school
year has led to the opening of
many doors, particularly for first
years. The great thing about Tech
is that it provides many a welcome opportunity to meet people
amongst the influx of new faces
but how to start? Here are a
few tips to point you toward making a great first impression.
BE GENUINE
The best relationships
friendly, professional, romantic
are strongest when each person
involved acts true to themselves
from the beginning. You will have
to keep a consistent personality in
any lasting connection to someone, so why not cut the crap right
off the bat? If there is anything
that many morals of stories should
have taught you by now, it is this:
be yourself. You will not regret it
in the end.
HAVE A SHORT LIST OF
INTERESTING THINGS
Anything. Literally anything.
You have made it this far in life
as a fully functional, hopefully
capable human being. Right? If
its Thursday, have a throwback by
taking a leaf out of your college
essay topics (just kidding).
Mentally defenestrate your
LinkedIn profile and resume and
curriculum vitae for a second and
come up with a few interesting
blurbs about yourself. Have you
cured cancer in your parents garage? Have you single-handedly
discovered the last digit of pi?
Little conversational bits like
those make a lasting impression
on a first-time acquaintance.
You can tweak your facts to
your hearts content based on the
social setting but keep it real.
Be honest.

PRACTICE

This is perhaps the most obvious and clich tip of them all. Its
not even a trick. Just do it. Tech
provides literally dozens of events
on any given day that are open for
you as a student to attend. Take
a break from your dorm cave and
get some good old fashioned human interaction.
Up your first impression game
by stepping out into the sunshine and meet a few smiling
faces. As Tech students, I think
Photo by Jamie Howell Student Publications we can agree that one of the best
A random face among a sea of rat caps. Every freshman has ways to begin is with a simple
had some sort of embarrassing or awkward moment in college. Hello, World!

technique August 28, 2015 11

// LIFE

Thoughts on the
library renewal
project
CHRISTIAN SHAHEEN
STAFF WRITER

Its only the second week of

school yet the library is already
full of students. Yet because of
the merger of Emory University and the new Library Service
Center, the Price Gilbert Memorial Library has been feeling a
oddly empty, devoid of its books.
Instead, there are more computers than previous years and more
study areas have been added.
According to statistics provided by the library, the number of
students who enter the library per
year has increased significantly,
from 800,00 to 1,300,000 in just
the last ten years. Meanwhile the
books checked out of the library
per year has decreased just as significantly, from 80,000 to 30,000
in the same time period. Even

taking into account the growth

of this Institute, it is obvious that
the needs of Tech students have
changed because, well, the world
has.
Ten years ago, Facebook first
arrived on Harvards campus.
Now my grandmother has one.
Because of the rapid expansion
of technology and technological
access, our library has decided to
more effectively reflect the influence technology actually has in
our education.
As the librarys publicity video,
Georgia Tech Library: Engineered
for You, puts it, Libraries are
about collecting, preserving, and
providing access information.
Now, all of that can be done virtually.
I think that its a smart move
based on how students at Tech use
the library. The bulk of research
is now done online and many of
the hard copies we have arent utilized. I know they were thinking
of combining ours and Emorys
library off campus, and as long as
that facility was still accessible to
us, I honestly think the benefit of
space outweighs the extra time it
takes to get to that library, said
Kali Nicholas, fourth-year ME.
But fear not book lovers;
even though our books are being moved off of our campus and
digitized, this does not mean that
books are becoming irrelevant.
eBooks and eJournals are widely
available at gtsearch.library.gatech.edu/search. eJournals can help
make research projects easier.
eJournals are often sorted into
themes instead of alphabetical order and there is no need for the
Dewey Decimal System. Search-

ing for keywords is much more

efficient than looking through a
section of the library. Madison
Kelley, a second-year International Affairs student, explains
that she like[s] using eJournals
because [she] can search through
them to find what [she] need[s] instead of wasting time reading the
entire article.
While overall the reaction
seems in favor of the renovations,
some do not buy into the hype.
Andrea Vetrone, a fourth-year
ENVE, explains that she prefers
the touch and the feel of a book,
rather than the glare of a computer screen. The glare of the
computer screen hurts my eyes
and I feel like it cant be good for
them. I also find it easier to skim

through a book because I usually

dont know exactly the right word
to search for.
But not having books on campus does not mean that they are
no longer available. They are listed
in a searchable database and can
be delivered from the Library Service Center to campus in a timely
manner. Additionally, because
our hard copy library has been
merged with Emory University,
there are books available which
can especially helpful for Liberal
Arts students.
When it comes to reading for
fun, students at Tech can use
OverDrive, an online service that
allows users to check out eBooks
for three weeks at a time. The best
part is that more than one person

can check out a book at any given

time and all of the best sellers are
available.
[OverDrive] is convenient because I read with my Nook, carrying around several books without added weight, said Frances
Tsenn, third-year BME. Though
I dont have much time during
the semester, I love to read over
breaks!
While the opinions are swayed
about the relocation of books to
an off-campus site, the digitalization of the library does not mean
that books are not important to
education. The renovations are
simply more efficient, cost effective and space effective since
books and academic journals will
now be available online.

Photo by Tyler Meuter Student Publications

The library looks sparse as the renewal process continues. Books will be moved to an off-campus
site called the Library Service Center, jointly owned by Georgia Tech and Emory University.

12 August 28, 2015 technique

FSGP FROM PAGE 1

ASC race the FSGP only serves
as a qualifier, yet still is considered
quite an accomplishment to complete. After passing their Scrutineering inspections in order to
satisfy the vehicle design regulations, which took about three
days, the team was able to move
on to the FSGP.
This years outcome for the GT
Solar Racing team proved to be
a significant improvement from
their previous competition during the ASC year in 2014. Teams
need to complete 90 laps in one
day or 60 laps each on two days
in order to make the cut, said
Bharat Kathpalia, fourth year
ME. We did not make the cut
due to logistical issues the
truck and trailer broke down on
the way to Austin, so we had to
leave all our spare parts behind.
Needless to say, this year the GT
Solar Racing team came back
with unwavering fervor.
Georgia Techs solar racing
vehicle, the Endeavour, finished
about 100 miles around the Circuit of the Americas racetrack,
completing ten laps on day one,
five on day two and thirteen on
day three. We shattered all of
Georgia Techs records with our
twenty-seven laps, Kathpalia
said.
However, with most successes
there are hurdles to overcome.
Despite surpassing their personal
goals, the Solar Racing team faced
numerous challenges along the
way. We were working with a car
made out of older parts. In addition, Austin is very hot this time
of year, which caused a lot of the

// LIFE

cars parts to overheat, Kathpalia

said. It was a challenge to keep
our drivers safe while also making
sure the car was running as efficiently as possible.
Some of their struggles, however, resulted in improved performance. On the first day of
racing, we had to remove one of
the battery modules as it was leaking, Kathpalia said. We ended
up discharging it later in the day;
however, removing that module
ended up improving our cars performance.
GT Solar Racing is now working on a new car, SR-2, whose
frame is already welded in the
shop. The SR2 will be twothirds the weight of the Endeavour, will have a third of the drag,
and almost 50% more torque,
Kathpalia said. The team will be
competing at the FSGP track race
next year, and hopes to move onto
the American Solar Challenge
soon after. Were in a much better place logistically and mentally. Endeavour is a 4 year old car
that we inherited, so weve had
to spend 4 years fixing all the issues and learning its systems,
Kathpalia said. With SR-2 we are
aiming for at least a top 5 spot in
the FSGP and qualifying for ASC
next year.
After getting 10% of the incoming freshman class to sign
up for the team during FASET,
Georgia Tech Solar Racing has
high hopes for the teams future.
Training and introductory projects for new members begin this
weekend.
More information on Techs
solar racing team can be found at
www.gtsolarracing.com.

FRESH FROM PAGE 12

be a real challenge), he forgot his
keys. He had just finished showering when the realization hit him.
He ran back to the room, but his
roommate had already left for
classes.
I had no phone to contact
Maintenance, no clothes to wear
and, most importantly, I had class
in an hour! I felt so embarrassed
as I started knocking on every
door of the hall to find help, even
more so when somebody finally
answered and I had to explain the
whole thing.
After a good laugh, he was
given some clothes and walked to
ECHO where he could sort it all
out.
A fourth-year EE major had a
similarly drenching experience.
He lived in Smith and like every
honest East Campus freshman he
used to climb his way up Freshman Hill to get to class.
It was a morning of my second week of class and it was raining cats and dogs.
Knowledgeable about Atlantan Summer rainstorms which
give rapidly way to a hot sun, he
dressed lightly.
I put on a shirt and flip flops.
Big mistake! Bobby Dodd Way
was flooded with streaming water! But it was too late to turn
back and change I would have
missed class! Although I loathed
the freezing sensation that tormented my feet in the cold water,
I kept going up.
Around him were other students who struggled with the water flow, but they all had closed
shoes.

Every now and then I got

puzzled looks which meant something like What is that weirdo
doing in flip flops?. I was already
glad that the hill was coming to an
end, when all of a sudden I slipped
on the wet asphalt and I fell butt
to the ground, while my flip flops
jumped up in the air and fell a few
feet downhill. It was all so fast I
couldnt do anything about it, but
as soon as I realized what had happened my face reddened, as I felt
twenty-plus eyes looking at me
and people snickering. Forcefully
trying to keep a straight face, I
stood up barefoot, picked up my
flip flops and headed to class, with
my head low and my butt wet and
hurting quite an embarrassing
experience.
For CS students Summer internships are a big opportunity to
get some hands-on experience and
to start building a rich resume.
Some, the brave and bold, apply
as soon as their Freshman year to
big companies like Google, Uber,
Facebook and Microsoft. Theres
only one scary thing that makes
those names seem far away from
our reach: interviews.
I applied for as many as 6
programs in a very short period
of time the applications were
fairly straight-forward. Then came
the interviews.
He prepared properly for the
big companies he was truly interested in, such as Uber, looking up the companys history and
reviewing certain programming
languages beforehand. Smaller
businesses, though, his plan Bs,
received much less attention. The
result was that a couple of interviews were ridiculous, almost

comical.
There was this one time I
had an interview with a software
engineering company. Literally,
all I knew about it was the name
(barely) and that they needed programmers. He met with the two
interviewers and everything was
cool as they went through his
resume and his skills. Then they
switched to particular questions
about the job.
When I was asked: So what
are you looking for in our company? and What is it about our
business that interests you?, I had
no reasonable response to give
them: I didnt know what they
did!
With a guilty smile he said,
Well I know youre looking for
programmers, and I like programming. An embarrassing silence
followed. Then one of the interviewers caught the hint and with a
knowing smile said, You havent
looked at the company at all, have
you? to which he answered honestly. After that, the conversation
was moved on to different topics.
He likes to point out: Funny
thing, I still got the job offer I
wanted from them, but ended up
refusing it for an internship in a
bigger company.
Whether youve been ambushed by Atlantas unpredictable
weather (lesson learned, always
carry an umbrella), caught in an
unfortunate interview or experiencing the dreaded sensation
of realizing that youve locked
yourself out of your room after a
shower, most of us can bring to
mind some sort of embarrassing
memory from our earliest years of
college life.

technique August 28, 2015 13

// LIFE

SGA FROM PAGE 10

ally recommend, if I could recommend a student do anything, is
to invest a little bit of their time
in SGA, and just kind of figure
out what we could do for them,
because we hit just about every
facet of campus. We work a lot
with parking and transportation,
academics, athletics. I dont think
people understand the scope of
what SGA does, what they can do.
One of the big things that were
trying to address right now is that
theres 14,000 undergrads that
were trying to help, and if they
have an issue, they dont necessarily know to reach out to SGA.
Its kind of a two sided thing
were wholly invested in the students, but we also need them to
be invested in us, so we can turn
around and help them.
Jen: One of the biggest things
that students can always do is that
if something comes up, if theres
an issue, even if its just a question, always to let us know, or just
to ask. If you have a question and
we dont have an answer, well at
least know who to go to and ask
the question. Thats just what we
need from students, for them to
let them know what they need
from us.
Technique: What communication channels are open for
students? How can they let you
know?
Jen: Both of us are always open
by email, in that case if you just
go to sga.gatech.edu, if the website
gives you nothing else, youre going to at least know who Jeff and
I are and if you want to contact
us. Our email is always there, you

can always email us. We have a

facebook page at Georgia Tech
Student Government Association,
and also we monitor reddit a lot.
So usually if theres something
going on there, and we can help
answer a question, well try to give
our two cents. So those are three
pretty big ways. And the SGA office is also in the Student Center.
Its across from Subway. We have
an administrative secretary whos
awesome and is always there to
answer questions, and nine times
out of ten theres an SGA person in the office. If someone has

a question, they can walk in and

ask them. Georgia, our secretary,
can answer that question, and if
she cant answer that question,
then one of the students in the
back can usually give the answer
or point them in the right direction.
Technique: What plans do you
have to improve campuss awareness and appreciation of diversity?
Jen: We have a Cultural and
Diversity Affairs Committee. We
call them CDAC. Last year they
did a lot of really great outreach
with our students working with

the leadership of the student organization, doing some diversity

round tables, getting some conversations started amongst our
student leader and our student
relations. So right now, theyre
in the beginning, and they say,
what does it look like the institute
needs this year as we have a conversation about diversity?
Jeff: It kind of goes on a per
case basis, so, as issues become
relevant, were going to hold discussions throughout the year that
address those. Were going to actively search for that student feed-

Photo by John Nakano Student Publications

Jen and Jeff attend an SGA candidate interview hosted by the Technique on March 31, 2015. They
encourage students to take the time to learn about SGA, to identify what SGA can do for them.

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back by holding those discussions

and hosting them, but thats not
necessarily something you can
plan for. Its more of an event that
happens and you address it at that
point.
Jen: The great thing I think
about SGA is when these things
come up, our affiliation is the students. Were not affiliated with
one group or the other, so when
we need to talk about something,
we have a broad range of people in
student government to give lots of
ideas and opinions and thoughts
as were trying the program about
discussion.
Jeff: Like we said, theres hundreds of us in SGA, so we cover all
sorts of facets.
Technique: Is there anything
else you to tell us about?
Jeff: Just wanted to stress live
safe, and committee applications
are coming soon.
Jen: Biggest thing. Whether
someone joins a committee or
doesnt is always like outreach to
us. Us reaching out, were going
to be doing that all year. Thats
what were here for, so just stressing how much, if they need either
of us, if they need someone in our
exec cabinet, always let us know,
because we are definitely here to
help.
Jeff: We have a lot of capacity
to affect student life, so if someones interested, they should definitely join student government if
they have the chance. Committees are a really easy way to break
through and get into SGA, so I
encourage anyone that has an issue, or thinks they can75004
do something that can promote student
life, they should join.

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Entertainment

technique

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR:

Trishna Chandarana

ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR:

Jamie Rule

entertainment@nique.net

14

Friday,
August 28, 2015

Club helps curious students Fall into Dance

JAMIE RULE

ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Colleges are usually noted as
extraordinary places to find ones
true passions. Not one to disappoint, Tech happily embraces a
stunning variety of clubs, teams,
and organizations. No matter
what a students interests, there is
sure to be at least one group that
fits his or her desires. The main
problem with this plethora is that
students need to be able to browse
and explore the different organizations in order to find the perfect
match.
To accommodate this growing
need, many clubs host info sessions or post fliers and sidewalk
chalk messages to get the news of
their existence to potential members at the beginning of each semester.
One such advertising group
was Techs Ballroom Dance Club,
or the slightly shorter GTBDC,
but they were not content to merely invite students to an info session or their first meeting. Nothing so droll was suitable. Instead,
GTBDC opted for their first
event to be a kind of welcoming
party to prospective new members
where they gave dance lessons to
all comers.
At seven in the evening of Aug.
22, the Student Centers third
floor Ballroom was positively
packed with individuals, couples
and groups of friends who were
interested in dancing. The grace-

Photo by John Nakano Student Publications

The Ballroom Dance club enthusiastically showed students how to dance, among others, the Foxtrot. New dancers laughed at themselves in a good-naturedly way while they learned the steps.

ful exertion did not begin immediately, however.

Tables were setup outside
the ballroom filled with trays of
chicken nuggets, candy, water
bottles and chips. Another table
held several laptops for attendees
to add their names to GTBDCs
mailing list, thus signing up
for future dance opportunities
throughout the semester. Once refreshments were served, the dance
lessons commenced.
The very first thing that attendees were taught is that ballroom
dances progress in a counterclock-

wise direction, which is called

the line of dance. From here, instruction became a little more
difficult, but it was still enjoyed
by all. Daniel Boman, a graduate
student, and Kelsey Johnson, the
clubs president, taught the Foxtrot in fabulous red outfits.
The second dance, taught by
another couple, was the Rumba
(not the vacuum) which, in a
room as packed as that ballroom,
seemed to be a dance specifically
designed for clothes-lining everyone in the general vicinity. Once
most (though sadly not all) people

but they were later extended by

the dual-wielding method, a more
organized approach to the game.
After a few matches and a
change of teams, participants
could enjoy free food. Ongoing pickup basketball and volleyball were played on the courts
throughout the event. Students
mingled amongst themselves as
the rain passed by overhead into
the night.
The Welcome Week concluding event followed Mondays

Dinosaur Exhibit petting zoo

on Skiles Walkway and Tuesdays
Pterodactyl Time inflatable in
front of Brittain Dining Hall. The
petting zoo allowed students to
engage in some quality time with
a variety of creatures ranging from
camels to monkeys and turtles.
All of the RHA events were a
nice way for freshmen to become
acclimated to their new surroundings and for returning residents to
get back into the groove of college
life.

noticed that certain flourishes

were detrimental to the health of
their neighbors, this dance went
along smoothly.
The third and final dance
taught was presided over by Boman and Johnson again, this time
in blue outfits. Through this lesson, many of these new dance
students realized the hard way
that the Hustle, when performed
improperly, is little more than
holding hands and spinning very
quickly in a circleactivities unkind to ones sense of equilibrium.
Sprinkled throughout the les-

sons were various dancing games,

and after teaching the Hustle, the
club played music to which attendees could practice their newly
learned abilities. Throughout the
four hour long event, attendees
slowly trickled out the doors.
Many stayed for all three lessons,
but few stayed for the entire event.
One could easily tell that those
who stayed had truly enjoyed
themselves (rather than staying
for lack of something better to do
or through a sense of dedication
once the dancing had started). As
the crowd thinned and inhibitions
diminished, it became easier for
dancers to find a partner.
The entire evening was designed to encourage attendees to
switch partners between dances
and throughout the lessonsa fitting concept since most were just
learning to dance. Switching partners encouraged people to help
one another instead of settling
into a certain flow with a single
partner.
With a successful night of lessons and dancing, the attendees
were given quite a few compelling
reasons to join Techs Ballroom
Dance Club. Most of those in attendance were freshmen, and new
Tech students are always particularly eager to explore their options
before dedicating themselves to
any one group on campus. GTBDC hopes the excitement of their
lessons gave their attendees a good
enough reason to stick with ballroom dancing for the semester.

or Love: one girls

Lasers galvanize residents Lust
journey to discover herself
DYLAN THOMSON

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
For the third and final installment of Welcome Week, the Residence Hall Association (RHA)
hosted Dino Dash Laser Tag on
top of the Curran Parking Deck
on Aug. 20.
Tech residents were invited for
a night of free laser tag, basketball
and volleyball. More importantly,
barbecue (which was quickly demolished), hot dogs and Monster
were provided.
The laser tag activity, being
the main focus, was set up with
inflatable barriers for competitors
to take cover behind along with a
canopy for each team. Opponents
began each match on separate
sides of the arena in small teams,
all equipped with a laser rifle and
a sensor on their gun.
Each competitor had four lives
that, when depleted, could be recharged with a medic gun located
in the two separate base tents. As
a result, one team member would
be designated as the medic who
fired healing rays at teammates.
Some medics decided to not give
up on dealing damage to the enemy, dual-wielding both the healing gun and the regular blaster.
The general strategy evolved
into running with the sensor behind your back and taking the
opposing team on firing squad
style. Rounds passed by quickly,

FILM

The Diary of a Teenage

Girl
GENRE: Drama, Romance
STARRING: Bel Powley,
Alexander Skarsgrd, Kristen
Wiig
DIRECTOR: Marielle Heller
RATING: R
RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7

OUR TAKE:

ALICE BARSKY

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Photo by Tyler Meuter Student Publications

As the finale to Welcome Week, RHA hosted laser tag and music on Curran Parking Deck. Barriers saw much use by players.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl is

a film adaptation of a novel by
Phoebe Gloekner, written and directed by Marielle Heller. The film
was released in select theaters.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl follows 15-year-old Minnie Goetze
(Bel Powley) as she navigates love,
relationships and self-worth a
journey that becomes complicated
as she develops a sexual relationship with her mothers 30 year old
boyfriend, Monroe (Alexander
Skarsgrd, Battleship). Heller depicts Minnies sexual awakening
and self-discovery in a way that is
unique to her story while simultaneously evoking the same feelings
of the shared experience of sexual

maturity in the viewer.

The portrayal of a sexual relationship between a teenager and
an adult acts as the uncomfortable,
and at times disturbing, driving
force for Minnies story. Minnie
and Monroes affair begins with a
grope on the couch and advances
quickly from there. The audience
experiences the evolution of the
relationship and other aspects
of Minnies growth through her
witty and honest recorded diary,
which narrates the film.
Is Monroe a predator, or is he
a man-child? The audience remains unsure, much like Minnie
is throughout the movie, and the
answer lies within the experiences
the viewer shares with Minnie.
The film is given an R-rating
which is apt due to the nature of
the film. As with the sexual content, the director portrays Minnie
and her mothers partying without
judgment and leaves evaluation to
the viewer. Minnies transgressions casual sex, drug use, homosexual experimentation occur in a haze of coerced choices
and a stunted idea of autonomy.
These events carefully add to her
growing wisdom of what it means
to be an independent woman.
Although the film focuses on
very heavy themes and subject
matter, the film maintains the inSee DIARY, page 15

technique August 28, 2015 15

// ENTERTAINMENT

Affordable picnic food hit or miss

RESTAURANTS

Cook Out
LOCATION: Ponce de Leon
CUISINE: Fast food,
American
COST: $3-$10
HOURS: 11 a.m.-3 a.m.
PHONE: (404) 865-4909

OUR TAKE:

JAMIE RULE

ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

While Techs dining might
be stellar every once and a while,
eating the same thing again and
again tends to become rather dull
and bland. As the semester continues, many students find themselves disenchanted with the on
campus options and willing to
venture farther into Atlanta to
find sustenance.
Last year, a restaurant, Zesto,
closed on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Perhaps not wanting to miss such
a real estate opportunity, Cook
Out, a growing North Carolina
based food chain, opened another
branch there in December. This
chain has been steadily growing
since the 1980s and offers many
fast food staples such as hamburgers and fries but also a wider range
of food than other restaurants of
its kind.
Cook Out chose a theme

and ran with it: the menu provides foods one would find at
its namesake the decorations
are reminiscent of the outdoors,
tables are made of heavily shellacked wood (or plastic made to
appear as wood) which remind
diners of picnic tables, and the
food itself is served in disposable
polystyrene foam boxes for easy
transportation.
The atmosphere is completed
with Christian music playing in
the background, occasionally broken up by a loudspeaker at full
volume announcing that someones food is ready at the counter
emulating the hectic atmosphere
of a large picnic where everyone is
attempting to get their food at the
same time even though there are
few cooks.
This is not to say that the service is slow, it is a reasonably small
wait time after ordering, but while
eating, the announcements are
quite distracting and interrupt
conversations.
Another detail that unintentionally pays tribute to Cook
Outs namesake it the scarcity of
napkins. It is a rare picnic indeed
where everything can be easily
located without asking. The restaurants customers are given few
napkins and must ask an employee for more (of course, there is always the option which some more
resigned picnickers choose: suffer
with dirty hands).
Atmosphere aside, Cook Out
is a restaurant rather like most,
but it touts one specialty, a great

Photo by Brenda Lin Student Publications

Pictured above is a chicken Cook Out Tray with hushpuppies

and onion rings as sides. Meals are conveniently made to go.

variety of milkshakes. Some flavors are seasonal such as Eggnog

in December, while many are year
round treats. With more than 30
different flavors, including oddities such as Pineapple, Heath Toffee, and Banana Fudge, Cook
Outs plethora of milkshakes rivals that of Steak n Shake.
Even with this vast number of
milkshakes to choose from, the
menu displayed at the counter emphasizes something else. The most
prominently placed information is
the restaurants Cook Out Tray, a
combo meal. For $4.99, customers
may choose a drink, a meal, and
two side items. This is quite a luck
of the draw deal due to the fact
that some sides are miniscule (for
instance, if someone orders onion
rings, he or she might end up with

only four small rings) while other

sides are entire meals on their
own (such as being able to order
chicken nuggets or a corn dog).
The quality of the food is not
a down side to Cook Out. On the
contrary, this restaurants hamburgers have a decent amount
of meat. Unlike other fast food
chains who emphasize the toppings one might add to a hamburger, thus degrading the thickness of the actual meat patty to
make room, Cook Out lets customers decide exactly what goes
on the hamburger but keeps the
meat thick looking like an actual slice of meat. The corn dog,
however, is predictably made
of mystery meat. Fortunately
though, it is smothered in fried
breading and tastes perfectly fine.

DIARY

FROM PAGE 14

nocence and whimsy of a young

adult and budding artist. Playful
drawings of hearts, funny and
crude doodles of genitalia, and interludes of Minnies comic strips
decorate the plot.
Throughout the story, Minnie
idolizes the feminist cartoonist
Aline Kominsky-Crumb. An illustrated Crumb briefly makes an
appearance in the film at a critical juncture, advising Minnie as a
sister and guide in the convoluted
experience of womanhood.
Set in San Francisco, CA during the 1970s, The Diary of a Teenage Girl places the audience in
sepia-tinted nostalgia during the
Free Love movement and a mere
decade after the birth of the feminist movement. Minnies mother,
Charlotte (Kristen Wiig, How to
Train Your Dragon), is a single
mother living a fast life filled with
drugs and alcohol, but genuinely
loves her daughters and tries
sometimes haphazardly to impart feminist ideals to the girls. As
Charlotte navigates the uncharted
waters of new liberation, the audience watches Minnie develop into
an empowered feminist.
A story of what first appears to
be the abuse of a young teenager
develops into an authentic, candid
representation of self-discovery
told through the eyes of a young
woman. The male characters of
The Diary of a Teenage Girl serve
as supporting roles whose actions
may influence Minnies thoughts
and feelings but ultimately take a
backseat as she accepts ownership
of her own pursuit of lust, love
and purpose.

Where will
you go?
www.oie.gatech.edu

Exchange Open House

8/25/15 @11am, Savant #308

IP Open House

8/25/15 @ 4pm, SC: Piedmont Room

IP Open House

8/27/15 @ 11am, SC: Piedmont Room

Exchange Open House

8/27/15 @12pm, SC: Piedmont Room

Study Abroad Fair

10/1/15 @ 10am-2pm, SC: Ballroom

presenting the 2015-2016 Season

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ORCHESTRA
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MARK GINDICK: WING-MAN

January 19-23
POSTSECRET: THE SHOW
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HUANG YI & KUKA

October 1-2

BLAZE
February 11

STREB: FORCES
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February 20

An Evening with Radiolabs

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October 10

OKWUI OKPOKWASILI:
BRONX GOTHIC

SISTER OUTSIDER
October 16

February 24-27
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March 5

SPANDA DANCE
COMPANY

PAST FORWARD

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March 9-10

October 25
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November 5-7

ZAP MAMA
April 1

MAVIS STAPLES &

JOAN OSBORNE:

An Evening with

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April 7

SOLID SOUL

November 18

LES BALLETS
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April 9-10

DJ SPOOKY:

PEACE SYMPHONY

November 19
JAKE SHIMABUKURO
November 20

LUCIDITY SUITCASE:

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April 13-16

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December 12

EARL KLUGH
April 23

THE SOUL REBELS

December 18

Special Presentation

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poetry and more at arts.gatech.edu.

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technique August 28, 2015 17

// ENTERTAINMENT

New spy thriller is uninspired spin on classic

FILM

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

GENRE: Action
STARRING: Henry Cavill,
Armie Hammer, Alicia
Vikander
DIRECTOR: Guy Ritchie
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14

OUR TAKE:

NOAH ROBERTS

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Deep in the drama of the Cold
War, American CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill, Man
of Steel) finds unlikely company
in rival Soviet KGB specialist Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer,
The Lone Ranger) and hardened
German mechanic Gaby Teller
(Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina) as
they join forces to hunt down Gabys missing scientist father, Udo
(Christian Berkel, Valkyrie). The
mission is by no means a creative
onethe wonderful band of misfits is tasked with extracting Dr.
Teller to prevent the stereotypical world-wide nuclear crisis at
the hands of a sinister couple, the
Vinciguerras (Elizabeth Debicki,
The Great Gatsby, and Luca Calvani).
In many ways, Guy Ritchies
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a
standard, unimaginative, albeit
humorous and fun spy film. The
main nuclear conflict is not at all
an interesting one though. Rather,

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. plays on audiences love for action packed blockbusters. Stereotypical
to the end, this spy thriller fails to revitalize the exhausted genre, but is tolerable nonetheless.

the only truly intriguing dynamic

of the nearly nonexistent plot is its
protagonist foils. This recreation
of the cult 1960s TV show of the
same name surprised audiences
with its superb character development.
Even from one of the first
scenes (a car chase scene that rivals
The Bourne Identity in creativity),
Ritchie clearly establishes Solos
calm, quirky demeanor contrasted
to Kuryakins intense, short-tempered mentality. Chuckles ensue
as the two ridiculously attractive
protagonists exchange witty banter as they grow as characters and
learn more about each other to the

point where they are close to what

normal people call friends.
On the negative end of the
spectrum, the other characters
are weak. The lead female role
a mechanic dolled up for fancy
parties does account for some
humorous quips, but does not
provide the stunning sharpness
apparent in a Bond girl or the like.
The antagonists are even worse.
Victoria Vinciguerra, accompanied by her very unimportant
spouse Alexander, is an extremely
stereotypical, sinister femme fatal
lacking any innovation.
Blockbuster directors with
enormous budgets often spend

the vast majority of their funds

on elaborate pyrotechnics, but
Ritchie is a special filmmaker. He
allocates much of the budget to
the details of the film and to the
sets, seen in this spy thriller as
well as his 2009 creation, Sherlock
Holmes, which all but shoves a
theater audience into a DeLorean
to present them with the wonderful surroundings and elements of
19th century England.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. engenders a similar effect, depicting
the ridiculous and dramatic environments and characters of the
1960s bourgeoisie scene. Ritchie
beautifully portrays an ostenta-

tious, sleek and accurate representation and recreation of 1960s

fashion with seersucker suits, popping orange dresses, pillbox hats
and shiny oxfords. Other seemingly small design details make
all the difference in the film and
give it an authentic feel, from Solo
romping about Rome on a bright
yellow Vespa to the models of the
Formula One cars used at the
Grand Prix event.
Ritchie also incorporates fantastic cinematography, giving a
modern edge to the classic spy
story. Innovative split screen action montages and well-executed
mood juxtaposition scenes bridge
the gap between plot developments, taking the place of disposable karate chop scenes and
drawn-out foot chases so common
in spy thrillers. In one instance,
Ritchie conveys both humor and
peril, as Solo lounges in a parked
carrier truck, flipping through
Italian radio channels, sipping
prosecco and eating a picnic sandwich from a wicker basket while
his partner is in a lethal boat race.
With this somewhat underwhelming recreation, Ritchie
establishes a reputation as a
technically sound and creative
filmmaker, and with a few solid
projects under his feet, he has the
ability and the potential to make
a true masterpiece of cinema. As
for the film itself, The Man from
U.N.C.L.E. is by and large an entertaining movie created to make
money. It is by no means a great
movie, and will not be in contention for awards, but it is worth the
trip to the theater for an undeniably fun time.

18 August 28, 2015 technique

SMBC BY ZACH WEINERSMITH

HARK! A VAGRANT BY K ATE BEATON

CLASSIC
FOXTROT BY BILL AMEND

// COMICS

XKCD BY RANDALL MUNROE

NEDROID BY ANTHONY CLARK

technique August 28, 2015 19

// COMICS

DILBERT BY SCOTT ADAMS

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE BY STEPHEN PASTIS

CLASSIC
CUL DE SAC BY RICHARD THOMPSON

LIO BY MARK TATULLI

CLASSIC
CALVIN & HOBBES BY BILL WATTERSON

SUDOKU PUZZLE

BY SUDOKUCOLLECTION.COM

20 August 28, 2015 technique

// SPORTS

Games on our Radar

florida state

Notre dame

Georgia

After an extremely close competition last season, the Jackets have another
chance at victory against Florida State at
the white out game this year. Last December, the Seminoles bested the Jackets
by only two points FSUs closest margin of victory all year. This season, the
Jackets relish a new outcome.
The Jackets are not the only team dealing with change this season: head coach
Jimbo Fisher has had to find replacements for much of FSUs most prominent
talent. Tech head coach Paul Johnson
may hold the upper hand with his spread
option offense since the Seminoles have
said goodbye to Heisman winning quarterback Jameis Winston in addition to
four offensive linemen.
The first six games of the season will
illustrate how much new talent the Seminoles have been able to pull in for the
2015 season. However, the Seminoles
havent lost all their talent and are still
quite a formidable opponent. Sophomore
wide receiver Travis Rudolph is back this
year, coming off of a 555-yard season in
2014. Junior Jalen Ramsey also returns
at defensive back after being named to
All-American honors in both his first
two seasons on the field. Ramsey is one
of FSUs most versatile defensive athletes
and should be a good match for Techs
option offense.

Techs road opener figures to be its

first major test of the year; playing in
South Bend on national television is a
challenge for the most seasoned of teams.
Paul Johnsons squad faces Notre Dame
for the first time in his tenure here, but
Johnson is familiar with what it takes to
come away with a victory. Should Tech
win this game, he will be the fifth coach
in college football history to beat the
Fighting Irish with two different teams,
as per Scout.com.
While Notre Dame lost 2014 starting
quarterback Everett Golson to Florida
State over the offseason, junior Malik
Zaire turned in an MVP performance
in his first career start: the teams Music
City Bowl victory last December. Zaire
possesses both the live arm of his predecessor and impressive acceleration on
the ground and will likely challenge Ted
Roofs opportunistic unit early and often.
The question remains whether the
2015 Irish defense will be an improvement over last years group, which ranked
No. 84 nationally in points allowed.
The early loss of defensive tackle Jarron
Jones leaves the front seven particularly
vulnerable to the high-powered Tech run
offense. If Justin Thomas and his teammates get out to an early lead, they have a
considerable chance of winning the latest
iteration of this seldom-played series.

After topping the Bulldogs 30-24 in

the first overtime game ever played in
Sanford Stadium, this November the
Jackets will look to start their first multigame win streak vs. the University of
Georgia since 19982000. The game will
be played at home in Atlanta, where the
Jackets havent beaten the Bulldogs since
1999.
The Bulldogs will be without several
key pieces of an offense that only managed to score two touchdowns in regulation time versus the Jackets in 2014,
including quarterback Hutson Mason,
running back Todd Gurley and wide receivers Chris Conley and Michael Bennett. Also gone are defensive leaders Ray
Drew, who blocked two kicks in last
years game, and Damian Swann, who
ran back the controversial 99-yard fumble for a touchdown.
The Jackets appeared to dominate the
line of scrimmage on both sides of the
ball in last years game and return all
their offensive and defensive linemen except for senior guard Shaq Mason, who
was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of last years NFL
draft.
If Tech is healthy, controls the trenches
and wins the turnover battle like last year,
the Jackets have a good shot at defeating
the Bulldogs in this years matchup.

Design by Brighton Kamen Student Publications

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Students, dont miss this opportunity to celebrate the Georgia Tech Family!

FRIDAY OC T OBER 2ND SUNDAY OC T OBER 4TH, 2015

This exciting weekend of activities
includes a special presentation by
ister Your Family Today!
eg
R
President Peterson, stimulating
Register online now at
presentations by faculty and staff,
parents.gatech.edu/familyweekend
College and School receptions,
er 17th at 11:59 p.m.
Registration closes Thursday, Septemb
family bowling at Tech Rec,
student performances, a special
performance with Arts@Tech,
our annual Family Weekend Tailgate prior to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football game,
a Jazz Brunch with John Stein, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, community service,
and much more!

22 August 28, 2015 technique

// SPORTS

OFFENSE

Last year was the offenses most

productive season ever under head
coach Paul Johnson in terms of
points scored and yards gained.
Though the offense lost a lot of
talent at the skill positions along
with its standout guard Shaq Mason, the return of quarterback
Justin Thomas and most of the offensive line should allow for this
unit to continue its high level of
production.
QUARTERBACK
The team captain and 2014
Orange Bowl MVP returns for
his junior season under center for
the Jackets and should continue to
be a driving force for Paul Johnsons spread option offense. He led
the team in rushing last season
with over a thousand yards and
contributed an additional 1719
through the air. He excels at reading the defensive front seven on
option plays and usually makes
the correct decision, resulting in
an efficient offense that is exciting
to watch.
B-BACK
The departure of three-year
starter Zach Laskey leaves a big
hole to fill at the B-back position.
Tech hopes to do so with Stanford
transfer Patrick Skov, who graduated this past spring and will be
eligible to play in 2015. Skov did
not have many touches during his
career with the Cardinals, mostly
seeing action in very short yard-

age or goal line situations. The

61, 235-pound B-back is built
for power running and should be
able to push through the interior
to gain yards. Behind him, junior
Marcus Allen and freshman Marcus Marshall will also be tested at
the position.
A-BACK
The Jackets lost five of their top
six A-backs from a year ago due to
graduation, depleting the unit of
some much-needed experience.
Senior Broderick Snoddy returns
to the lineup after his 2014 campaign was cut short with a seasonending broken leg. Speed is paramount to success at the position,
and Snoddy is perhaps the fastest
player on the team, holding the
school record in the 60-meter as a
member of the indoor track team.
After Snoddy, there is little
experience at this position, with
junior Isiah Willis and freshmen
Qua Searcy, Clinton Lynch and
Matthew Jordan rounding out the
depth chart.
Expect a lot of A-backs to see
equal playing time at the start
of the season, with the starters
emerging after the first few games
are in the books.
WIDE RECEIVER
Tech lost two NFL-caliber
wide receivers to the draft in
DeAndre Smelter and Darren
Waller. This year, the two starters
are projected to be junior Michael

DEFENSE
Although 2014 was a great year
for the Tech football program,
the Jackets defense was a sore
spot throughout the season. On
the surface, the sheer amount of
turnovers produced paints the defense as an extremely capable and
competent bunch. Looking past
this unsustainable statistic, however, the Jackets were ranked 18th
worst in the nation for yards allowed per play at a troubling 6.32.
It was their first year with defensive coordinator Ted Roof,
which could reasonably justify
their pedestrian performance. The
defenses improvement as the season progressed lends credence to
this theory and gives fans hope
that this season will feature a
more confident squad on the defensive side of the ball.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Techs defensive line is looking
strong, going into the upcoming
season with more depth than they
have ever had under current line
coach Mike Pelton. Starters KeShun Freeman and Adam Gotsis
are returning to play rush end and
defensive tackle, respectively, providing invaluable experience and
leadership to anchor this squad.
Patrick Gamble, Jabari HuntDays and Rod Rook-Chungong
will also return in larger roles.
Over the past few seasons, the
three have proven their ability to
be valuable assets to Techs defensive line and should have no
trouble making the most of their
increased playing time.
Beyond these five, the roster is
teeming with players looking for a
chance to prove their worth. The
increased depth should promote a

Photos by John Nakano Student Publications

Summers and sophomore Rickey

Jeune. At 61, 195 pounds, Summers is built more for speed than
physicality and will use his skills
to gain separation downfield.
From what he showed in 2014,
he has the potential to grow into
a consistent playmaker for the
Jackets.
Meanwhile, at 63 and 214
pounds, Jeune should be able to
fight defenders in jump ball situations and hold his ground while
blocking on option plays. Sophomore Antonio Messick will also
see some action, especially in the

DEFENSIVE BACKS
Senior safety Jamal Golden is
poised to have a fantastic season
at free safety after a very memorable 2014. He was not only a vital
part of shutting down the passing game of opposing offenses,
notching four interceptions on the
season, but also an incredible last
line of defense against the run. He

OFFENSIVE LINE
In Paul Johnsons system, the

offensive line is perhaps more

important to the teams success
than the running backs. Though
the departure of Shaq Mason will
certainly impact the team, this
experienced unit returns four of
its five starters that propelled the
Jackets to being the best rushing
team in the nation in 2014.
From left to right on the line,
Bryan Chamberlain, Trey Braun,
Freddie Burden, Shamire Devine
and Errin Joe will be the starters,
with several more players seeing
some time as part of a seven- or
eight-man rotation.

SPECIAL TEAMS
The Jackets return punter Ryan
Rodwell, kicker Harrison Butker,
long snappers Sean Tobin and
Trevor Stroebel and kick-returner
Jamal Golden in what looks to be
another solid year for the special
teams unit.

more competitive attitude among

the backups and contribute to
an all-around more effective defensive line. Fans can expect this
squad to provide a solid base for
the rest of the defense.
LINEBACKERS
While the loss of inside linebacker Quayshawn Nealy will certainly be felt this fall, it is equally
certain that he left the squad in
capable hands. Junior P.J. Davis
led the Jackets in tackles last year
with 119, the second most by any
Tech player since at least 2005.
His presence instills fear in the
hearts of opposing ball-carriers,
and he will be the player opposing offenses focus their efforts into
stopping this fall.
Senior Tyler Marcordes will
most likely be starting alongside
Davis. Marcordes is a smart player
that should be able to make some
big things happen for this defense
in his second year under Roof.
Beau Hankins and Dominique
Noble should are expected to be
the two main contenders at the
inside linebacker position, and
with a good amount of experience
between the two, they are apt to
round out this talented linebacker
core. Newcomer Victor Alexander
should also see time on the inside.

first few games.

With the amount of talent lost
from 2014 and the inexperience of
the current receivers, do not expect the offense to produce similar
passing numbers as they did a year
ago. Unfortunately, this will also
affect the running game, as opposing defenses will not focus on
the receivers as much as they had
to a year ago and dedicate more
resources to stopping the running
game.

Photos by John Nakano Student Publications

finished the season with 61 tackles and three forced fumbles and
will look to top these numbers in
his final season as a Jacket. Senior
Demond Smith is the incumbent
at the other safety position after
recording 73 tackles in 2014.
Cornerback D.J. White is also
returning for his senior season
and should have a huge impact
on this defense. Throughout the
2014 season, he grew to become
perhaps the best pass defender
on the team. Like Golden, he
will also be a large factor in stopping the run. Senior cornerback
Chris Milton will line up on the
opposite side of the field from
White and assume equal passstopping responsibilities.
Freshman A.J. Gray should
also see some time at safety this
year, coming into Tech considered Georgias high school player
of the year by multiple organizations.

PUNTER
Rodwell, a redshirt junior,
punted just 32 times last year
the lowest total in the ACC
and had 13 of those kicks land inside the 20-yard line. He averaged
40.2 yards per kick with a careerlong of 55 yards versus Virginia
Tech and has never had a punt
blocked. While the loss of several
key offensive players may have
Tech punting more this season,
fans can expect solid play out of
Rodwell when he takes the field.
KICKER
Butker, a junior, is fresh off of
one of the most remarkable singleseason efforts by a kicker in Tech
history. Butker finished with a
modest 11-18 on field goal at-

tempts but led the team in scoring

with 98 points, kicked a gamewinning field goal as time expired
versus Virginia Tech, made a
school record 65 PATs and booted
a career-long 53-yard field goal
versus Georgia to send the game
into overtime, which the Jackets
ultimately won. Techs strong offense should give him ample opportunities for both PATs and
field goals this fall.
RETURNER
The player to watch this year
is redshirt-senior kick returner
Jamal Golden, who had an outstanding sophomore campaign
that included two kick returns
for touchdowns in 2012. A 2014
Third Team All-ACC honorable mention, Golden has been a
steady and reliable staple on special teams and looks to have more
kick return opportunities thanks
to what should be an improved
defense. He will look to end his
Tech career on a high note, both
as a safety and a returner.

Photo by John Nakano Student Publications

technique August 28, 2015 23

// SPORTS

featured players spotlight

BRODERICK
SNODDY, #22
A-Back

Senior A-Back Broderick Snoddy returns to the field after missing Techs final three games of
2014 and all of the spring drills due to a season-ending leg injury. During the Jackets media
availability earlier this summer, Snoddy expressed confidence in himself, assuring reporters
that he was feeling healthy and ready to focus on another season of personal record breaking.
Last year was a season of career highs for Snoddy. While playing in ten games and starting in three, Snoddy rushed for 283 yards on 28 carries, averaging over 10 yards per touch.
In the game against Wofford last August, Snoddy broke his career receiving yards record
on one 65-yard reception and finished the year with an even 100 yards. Expect him to easily
surpass those marks in 2015 as he shoulders more of the offensive load.
Snoddy will be crucial to successful offensive performances, as Techs offense will have to
adjust to a lot of new faces at both running back positions. His experience in the system will
place a greater responsibility on him to perform, and his speed and agility will allow him to do so.

This season, Tech quarterback and team captain Justin Thomas, widely regarded as one of the
most electrifying players in the nation, looks to build off of an impressive 2014 campaign in which
he led the Jackets to an 11-3 overall record. The junior recorded 1,719 yards and 18 touchdowns
through the air and added another 1,086 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground last season.
He led the team to victories over Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson and Georgia, a collection of
four teams that the Jackets were previously a combined 7-18 against in the past six seasons.
The reigning Capital One Orange Bowl MVP is entering his second year as a starter, and
expectations are high. But if theres one thing that Thomas taught Tech last year, its that he
can rise to the occasion, answer the call, and do the impossible. Whether hes down a touchdown and facing 4th and 15 with under two minutes left versus Virginia Tech or down three
with 18 seconds left versus Georgia, Thomas has proven time and time again that he can rally the
team against all odds to win the types of games that the Jackets have historically lost.

JAMAL
GOLDEN, #04
Safety

Photos courtesy of GTAA

JUSTIN
THOMAS, #05
Quarterback

Despite the deficiencies of the 2014 Tech defense, its inarguable that defensive back Jamal
Golden was vital to the teams success. For the Jackets to take the next step forward in 2015,
Golden, a redshirt senior and third-team All-ACC product, will be expected to replicate or
perhaps even build on his breakout campaign.
After missing the majority of his sophomore season with a shoulder injury, Golden returned with a vengeance last year, forcing seven turnovers, particularly in key situations
with four interceptions and three fumbles. Plays such as his miraculous goal-line strip of
Pittsburgh running back James Conner and pick-six versus Clemson not only stopped sure
scoring drives, but also shifted those games momentum significantly.
He will also continue to be the teams main punt and kickoff return specialist. He netted
710 yards on 30 kickoff returns a year ago and in 2012 averaged 14.6 yards per punt return. As
one of the teams elder statesmen, Golden will be expected to once again lead by example. Based
on what hes shown thus far in his career, Tech fans have reason to be confident in his ability.

Sports

Season Preview

SPORTS EDITOR:

Jon Long

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR:

Joe Sobchuk

sports@nique.net

The Technique previews the Jacket's

most anticipated games of the 2015
football season.420

technique

24

Friday,
August 28, 2015

FEATURED Game : Tech vs Alcorn STATE

JACKETS

by Harsha Sridhar, Contributing Writer

Paul Johnson and the spread option

Tech offense took the college football
universe by storm in 2014, and expectations have changed accordingly.
Winning a New Years Six bowl game
places a target squarely on a teams
back, and if the Jackets hope to
build upon last years remarkable performance, they cannot
afford to overlook any team on
their schedule. That includes their
Week 1 opponent, the Alcorn State
Braves.
Like Tech, the Braves rely on a
powerful run game to open up passing lanes. While Alcorn States groundbased attack allows the team to control

in points per game and tying for first with

an incredible 6.91 yards per play. At its
helm this season will be senior quarterback
John Gibbs, Jr., the reigning SWAC CoOffensive Player of the Year. Ted Roof and
the Tech defense will be forced to respect
the Houston native; he not only passed for
21 touchdowns to the tune of 8.77 yards
per attempt but also rushed for more yards
than anyone else on the team.
Stymieing the Braves offense doesnt
merely end with stopping its quarterback,
though; the group returns two other firstteam All-SWAC athletes: tight end Jordan
Payne and offensive lineman Isaac Simpson. Both Payne and Simpson could test
the Tech front seven after the departure of
Quayshawn Nealy.

PREDICTION: Tech 41, Alcorn St. 14

the explosive Tech offense.

The Jackets return four of five starters on the offensive line, but the loss of
right guard Shaq Mason to graduation is
a significant one. It is fitting that the large
void Mason leaves be filled by towering
redshirt sophomore Shamire Devine. At
67 and 366 pounds, theres little doubt
that the Atlanta native has traits that cant
be coached. The season opener will be
Devines first start, however, and in order
for Paul Johnsons offense to function at
a high level, he will have to win his oneon-one matchups consistently. Should he
succeed, Justin Thomas and the running
backs will dominate a largely inexperienced Braves defensive front.

Alcorn State will be hard pressed to

recreate last seasons success, which saw
them place top ten nationally in scoring defense and interceptions. After
graduating a number of key players,
the team returns a pair of first-team
all-conference honorees, namely defensive lineman Darien
Moody and defensive back
Warren Gatewood. Growing
pains are to be expected, but
if Alcorn State can disrupt run
plays early and force Justin Thomas to pass, the combination of an inexperienced Tech receiving corps and
a ball-hawking Braves secondary could
lead to turnovers and some real momentum for the visitors.

BRAVES

Design by Brighton Kamen Student Publications, Photo by John Nakano Student Publications

After winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) for the first time in
over two decades, the Braves contest versus
Tech will mark the beginning of their title
defense. All three of the teams 2014 losses
were one-possession games, including a 2026 defeat at the hands of FBS opponent
Southern Miss. Since the SWAC chooses
not to compete in the FCS playoffs, Techs
Week 1 opponent capped off its season by
defeating reigning champion Southern
University 38-24 in the conference championship. With the Jackets as Alcorn States
only FBS opponent this year, the latter will
look to make a statement that it can compete with a nationally recognized program.
Alcorn State was an offensive juggernaut in 2014, finishing second in the FCS

time-of-possession battles and physically

batter weaker opponents, its not conducive to large comebacks.
Ted Roofs defense should focus on
stuffing the run early and forcing the
Braves to abandon the heart of their offense. That responsibility will fall in large
part upon redshirt senior Tyler Marcordes,
who is replacing stalwart Quayshawn
Nealy at strong-side linebacker. While
Nealys presence and production wont
be easily replaced, Marcordes is a known
quantity, having started seven games last
season. If he and running mates Beau
Hankins and P.J. Davis can render quarterback John Gibbs, Jr. one-dimensional,
the Braves will be unable to keep up with