Sep. 30, 2009

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University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark. VOL. 104, NO. 7 | Single Issue Free WWW.UATRAV.COM About you. For you. For 104 years. Page 1A |WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 6 HIGH 73 LOW 63 WEATHER Mostly sunny. Lifestyles Laugh with UA grad on “Chelsea Lately” page 1B Sports Arkansas renews rivalry with Aggies page 7B Job market is uncertain for 2010 graduates Campus career center aids job seekers As seniors begin to face a still-uncertain job market and underclassmen look to op- timize their career potential early, UA Career Development Center representatives are see- ing office traffic pick up – and they’re working to ensure stu- dents reach their career goals, despite the economic slump. CDC Director Barbara Bat- son even said she thinks this year’s graduates will be more likely to find a job than last year’s – though the search may still prove tough. “I anticipate spring 2010 graduates will have more job opportunities in more areas,” she said. “I like for our gradu- ates to have choices when it comes to accepting a job – however, the choices may be more limited in some fields for a year or so.” But that’s why the CDC is available – to help students make the best of the job market as is. Celebrating its 60th year on campus next fall, the CDC, in Batson’s words, “assists all students, all majors, all degree plans in exploring their career interests and developing a plan to reach their career goals.” And it’s not just for seniors, she said. The CDC helps all stu- dents find experience to ben- efit – and complement – their degree. “There is not just ‘one way’ to plan for a successful career,” Batson said. “Some students find study abroad, work abroad, internships, research and vol- unteering to help point them in the direction of a meaningful career.” Batson and other CDC of- ficials work with UA students MORE NEWS. LESS PAPER. UATrav.com LARRY ASH Staff Photographer Blaine Mosley is beginning his post-graduation career working at the Flying Burrito on Spring Street. Mosley graduated from the UA with a degree in English. LARRY ASH Staff Photographer Books that were banned at some time in the past are displayed in the University Bookstore at the Arkansas Union. During the last week of Sep- tember every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the issue of censorship by mounting displays of challenged and banned books and hosting a variety of events. The 2009 cel- ebration of Banned Books Week ends Oct. 3. The University Bookstore has a display of various banned books on the second floor of the Arkansas Union, with titles from William S. Burroughs’ “The Na- ked Lunch” to Ernest Hemming- way’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The Fayetteville Public Li- brary is also celebrating Banned Books week in conjunction with the Banished Book Lunch Club. The group will meet noon to 1 p.m. through Friday to discuss classic books banned for politi- cal, social, sexual and religious reasons, with each session focus- ing on one of the four themes and featuring a title that was banned for that reason. Below is an abbreviated list of some books that have been banned in the United States, some of which students might find on their own bookshelf: “Adventures of Huckleber- ry Finn” by Mark Twain The “N-word,” which ap- pears many times in the novel, was the cause for the removal of this classic from an eighth- grade reading list. In the 1950s, the NAACP objected to the book’s perceived racist tone. In 1984, the book was removed from a public high school reading list in Waukegan, Ill., because a black alderman found the book’s lan- guage offensive. American Heritage Dic- tionary In 1978, an Eldon, Mo., li- brary banned the dictionary because it contained 39 “objec- tionable” words. And, in 1987, the Anchorage School Board banned the dictionary for simi- lar reasons. “Catch-22” by Joseph Hel- ler This book was banned and challenged more than once. It was banned in Srongsville, Ohio, in 1972 and that decision was overturned in 1976. It was also challenged in Dallas, Texas (1974), and again in Snoqualm- ie, Wash. (1979). “Lord of the Flies” by Wil- liam Golding The Toronto School Board banned this classic from all its schools, claiming it was racist for use of the “N-word.” Even Gold- ing’s Nobel Prize in literature did Area libraries remember once-banned books Whatever experts might forecast about the 2010 job market, there’s no guarantee they’ll be right: Last year, hir- ing was expected to increase by 6 percent, but it actually decreased by 21 percent, ac- cording to a report by the Na- tional Association of Colleges and Employers. Perhaps that’s why econo- mists and career development officials are hesitant to offer radical predictions now. “Everybody is really un- sure,” said Becky Vianden, associate director of program development for the Career Development Center. “This time last year, the market turned on a dime and, boom, things went bad.” 2010 graduates might have a slightly easier time finding a job than 2009 graduates, said CDC Director Barbara Batson, but economics professor Javier Reyes said he expects the job market to be as difficult as ever. “There are a lot of people out there with no jobs, but with experience. It will be harder for graduates because they’re competing with people graduating and people with real experience,” Reyes said. “Companies might be stop- ping their hiring freezes, but it will still be challenging to find a job.” Arkansas has an unemploy- ment rate of about 8 percent right now, and it’s not expect- ed to drop in 2010, he said. Recruiting Most recruiting will hap- pen in the fall this year, ac- cording to the NACE report, but employers plan to attend fewer career fairs and shift their focus to social network- Companies project 7 percent decrease in hiring Jaclyn Johnson Assistant Managing Editor Kimber Wenzelburger Managing Editor Samuel Letchworth Staff Writer See MARKET on Page 2A See CDC on Page 5A See BOOKS on Page 3A

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The student-run newspaper at the University of Arkansas

Transcript of Sep. 30, 2009

Page 1: Sep. 30, 2009

University of Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark.VOL. 104, NO. 7 | Single Issue Free

WWW.UATRAV.COM About you. For you. For 104 years.Page 1A |WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

6

HIGH

73LOW

63

WEATHER

Mostly sunny.

LifestylesLaugh with UA grad on “Chelsea Lately”page 1BSportsArkansas renews rivalry with Aggiespage 7B

Job market is uncertain for 2010 graduates

Campuscareer center

aids job seekers

As seniors begin to face a still-uncertain job market and underclassmen look to op-timize their career potential early, UA Career Development Center representatives are see-ing office traffic pick up – and they’re working to ensure stu-dents reach their career goals, despite the economic slump.

CDC Director Barbara Bat-son even said she thinks this year’s graduates will be more likely to find a job than last year’s – though the search may still prove tough.

“I anticipate spring 2010 graduates will have more job opportunities in more areas,” she said. “I like for our gradu-ates to have choices when it comes to accepting a job – however, the choices may be more limited in some fields for a year or so.”

But that’s why the CDC is available – to help students make the best of the job market as is. Celebrating its 60th year on campus next fall, the CDC, in Batson’s words, “assists all students, all majors, all degree plans in exploring their career interests and developing a plan to reach their career goals.”

And it’s not just for seniors, she said. The CDC helps all stu-dents find experience to ben-efit – and complement – their degree.

“There is not just ‘one way’ to plan for a successful career,” Batson said. “Some students find study abroad, work abroad, internships, research and vol-unteering to help point them in the direction of a meaningful career.”

Batson and other CDC of-ficials work with UA students

MORE NEWS. LESS PAPER. UATrav.com

LARRY ASH Staff Photographer

Blaine Mosley is beginning his post-graduation career working at the Flying Burrito on Spring Street. Mosley graduated from the UA with a degree in English.

LARRY ASH Staff Photographer

Books that were banned at some time in the past are displayed in the University Bookstore at the Arkansas Union.

During the last week of Sep-tember every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the issue of censorship by mounting displays of challenged and banned books and hosting a variety of events. The 2009 cel-ebration of Banned Books Week ends Oct. 3.

The University Bookstore has a display of various banned books on the second floor of the Arkansas Union, with titles from William S. Burroughs’ “The Na-ked Lunch” to Ernest Hemming-way’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

The Fayetteville Public Li-brary is also celebrating Banned Books week in conjunction with the Banished Book Lunch Club.

The group will meet noon to 1 p.m. through Friday to discuss classic books banned for politi-cal, social, sexual and religious

reasons, with each session focus-ing on one of the four themes and featuring a title that was banned for that reason.

Below is an abbreviated list of some books that have been banned in the United States, some of which students might find on their own bookshelf:

“Adventures of Huckleber-ry Finn” by Mark Twain

The “N-word,” which ap-pears many times in the novel, was the cause for the removal of this classic from an eighth-grade reading list. In the 1950s, the NAACP objected to the book’s perceived racist tone. In 1984, the book was removed from a public high school reading list in Waukegan, Ill., because a black alderman found the book’s lan-guage offensive.

American Heritage Dic-tionary

In 1978, an Eldon, Mo., li-

brary banned the dictionary because it contained 39 “objec-tionable” words. And, in 1987, the Anchorage School Board banned the dictionary for simi-lar reasons.

“Catch-22” by Joseph Hel-ler

This book was banned and challenged more than once. It was banned in Srongsville, Ohio, in 1972 and that decision was overturned in 1976. It was also challenged in Dallas, Texas (1974), and again in Snoqualm-ie, Wash. (1979).

“Lord of the Flies” by Wil-liam Golding

The Toronto School Board banned this classic from all its schools, claiming it was racist for use of the “N-word.” Even Gold-ing’s Nobel Prize in literature did

Area libraries remember once-banned books

Whatever experts might forecast about the 2010 job market, there’s no guarantee they’ll be right: Last year, hir-ing was expected to increase by 6 percent, but it actually decreased by 21 percent, ac-cording to a report by the Na-tional Association of Colleges and Employers.

Perhaps that’s why econo-mists and career development officials are hesitant to offer radical predictions now.

“Everybody is really un-sure,” said Becky Vianden, associate director of program development for the Career Development Center. “This time last year, the market turned on a dime and, boom, things went bad.”

2010 graduates might have a slightly easier time finding a job than 2009 graduates, said CDC Director Barbara Batson, but economics professor Javier Reyes said he expects the job market to be as difficult as ever.

“There are a lot of people out there with no jobs, but with experience. It will be harder for graduates because they’re competing with people graduating and people with real experience,” Reyes said. “Companies might be stop-ping their hiring freezes, but it will still be challenging to find a job.”

Arkansas has an unemploy-ment rate of about 8 percent right now, and it’s not expect-ed to drop in 2010, he said.

Recruiting

Most recruiting will hap-pen in the fall this year, ac-cording to the NACE report, but employers plan to attend fewer career fairs and shift their focus to social network-

Companies project 7 percent decrease in hiringJaclyn Johnson

Assistant Managing Editor

Kimber WenzelburgerManaging Editor

Samuel LetchworthStaff Writer

See MARKET on Page 2ASee CDC on Page 5A

See BOOKS on Page 3A

Page 2: Sep. 30, 2009

Make a Difference Day sign-up available now

Make A Difference Day engages more than 500 students each year in service projects that provide assistance to the com-munity. The day is intended to give students an opportunity to learn about the various non-profit agencies in Northwest Arkansas, as well as to provide a venue for civic engagement. Volunteer sign-up has begun. Students can join a project by logging on to Volunteer.uark.edu.

Students can voice opinions about bike policy Thursday

Gary Smith, director of the UA Transit and Parking Depart-ment, will host a public input session with UA students and citizens of Fayetteville regarding the new UA bicycle policy at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Union Theater. For more informa-tion, contact Smith at 575-3304.

Auditions open for UATV’s Kung Fu Karaoke

Love to sing? Kung Fu Karaoke is back. UATV 14 will host the student competition Tuesday, Oct. 13. The Asian-themed musical throwdown will pit wanna-be superstars against each other on live television. The event is sponsored by Dan-ceenhance Entertainment. Auditions are required. E-mail [email protected] to schedule a tryout.

Be a part of a field study in Egypt

UA students studying archaeology and/or anthropology may consider an opportunity to analyze skeletal material at the commoners’ cemetery at Tell Amarna, Egypt, the city built by Pharaoh Akhenaton. The monthlong program is tentatively set for May 9 to June 15. The application deadline is Oct. 15, and early applications are encouraged. For an application or more information, contact the Office of Study Abroad at Studyabroad.uark.edu/Egypt or studyabroad.uark.edu.

Dance workshop to be hosted in October

Dance Coalition, a Northwest Arkansas nonprofit group of choreographers and dancers, has paired up with the THEA Foundation and Arkansas Dance Network to present “A Mod-ern Dance Workshop with Broadway Star Bill Hastings” in Room 220 of the HPER Building Sunday, Oct. 18. Workshop classes begin at 12:30 p.m. and finish at 6 p.m. Tuition for the afternoon workshop is $20 and includes a snack and THEA Foundation T-shirt when participants register online at THEAfoundation.org. For more information, contact Sally Ashcraft, the executive director of dance coalition, at 479-422-6132 or [email protected].

BRIEFLYspeaking

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COMPage 2A | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 NEWS

CORRECTIONSThe Arkansas Traveler strives for accuracy in its reporting and will correct all matters of fact. If you believe the paper has printed an error, please notify the editor at 575.8455 or at [email protected].

KIMBER WENZELBURGERManaging Editor

[email protected]

JACLYN JOHNSONAssistant Managing

Editor for New Media

BAILEY MCBRIDENews Editor

[email protected]

LANA HAZELAsst. News Editor

TANIAH TUDORAssistant News Editor

for New Media

BRIAN WASHBURNLifestyles Editor

[email protected]

LINDSEY PRUITTAsst. Lifestyles Editor

MATT WATSONSports Editor

[email protected]

HAROLD MCILVAINAssistant Sports Editor

JIMMY CARTERAssistant Sports Editor

for New Media

CHERI FREELAND Business Manager

[email protected]

EMILY HARBUCKMarketing [email protected]

CANNON MCNAIRAdvertising Manager

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ROSALYN TAYLORCampus Advertising

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TYLER [email protected] BEN STARNES

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Executives

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CONTACT INFORMATION119 Kimpel Hall ! University of Arkansas ! Fayetteville, AR 72701

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The Arkansas Traveler, the student newspaper at the University of Arkansas, is published every Wednesday during the fall and spring academic sessions except during exam periods and university holidays.

Opinions expressed in signed columns are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Traveler. The editorial that appears on the left side of the opinion page is the opinion of this newspaper.

The editor makes all final content decisions.

The Arkansas Traveler is a member of the Arkansas College Media Association,and the Associated Collegiate Press.

TINA KORBEEditor

[email protected]

LARRY ASH Staff Photographer

Adam Whelan, manager of Town and Country Liquor on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, shows off lottery tickets. The State Lottery Commission reported it sold $600,000 worth of tickets on the first day and paid out more than $450,000 in prizes.

COUNTING UP THE CASH

MARKETfrom Page 1A

ing instead.At the UA, though, a

healthy 60 companies turned out for the engineering career fair and 34 companies for the all majors fair, Vianden said.

“This was much more than we had projected,” she said.

As this solid turnout sug-gests, NWA didn’t really ex-perience the economic down-turn as severely as the rest of the country, Vianden said.

Even in NWA, though, com-panies might not have quite as much to offer new recruits as they once did.

“Students will have to un-derstand that salary and wages

might not be what they once were,” said Rashad Delph, Ty-son Foods, Inc., manager of corporate recruiting.

Given that, students might want to consider graduate school instead, Reyes said.

If students know what city they want to work in, they should look at graduate pro-grams in that city, he said.

By the time they gradu-ate and are looking for a job again, the market will have had time to recover, he said.

The intrepid who insist on looking for a job now will have to prove how they can contribute to a company, Del-ph said.

“When hiring, we look at our shortfalls (as a company) and where we need improve-ment,” he said. “(Applicants)

have to establish (themselves) within a good foundation and prove (their) worth to that foundation.”

Sectors

Earning a job is easier or harder, though, depending on what sector it falls under.

NWA is a good market for service, medical, education, technical and finance posi-tions, Batson said.

And, of course, Wal-Mart makes a significant difference in the local economy, as well.

“We’re in a unique situa-tion with respect to Wal-Mart,” Reyes said. “The NWA (econo-my) follows the sales side of companies like Wal-Mart. Our market, then, is very much dependent on the consumer.

How they do will affect how NWA will do.”

Nationwide, education and medicine are strong fields, Batson said.

Students need to be willing to relocate, she said, because that flexibility increases their chances of finding a good job.

Students with work expe-riences, such as internships, will also have an easier time with the job search, Batson said.

Some other top jobs across the country include public ac-counting, software design, en-gineering, nursing, teaching, sales and research, according to Job Choices: Diversity Edi-tion 2010.

Green Companies

And, of course, any picture of the 2010 job market would be incomplete without a few words devoted to the green sector.Newsweek has recently re-

leased the first major list of the “greenest” companies in America.

Hewlett-Packard was awarded the No. 1 slot as the greenest company in America. Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Intel and IBM followed to fill the top five rankings.

The Bentonville-based Wal-Mart has spot 59 in the overall rankings and sixth within the Industry sector, according to Newsweek.

Creating zero waste, oper-ating entirely on renewable energy and selling products that help conserve resources are the company’s top three objectives.

Another local company, J.B. Hunt Transport Services is listed as 429 of the top 500 ranked companies. Tyson Foods Inc. follows closely at 479, according to the News-week list.

The rankings were created with the help of environmen-tal researchers, who based the rankings on a combination of environmental policies, per-formance and overall reputa-tion.

The “greening” of U.S. companies might help them compete financially in the fu-ture – and alleviate long-term costs to the public – because the controversial cap-and-trade system proposed by Pres-ident Barack Obama would make companies pay for their carbon footprint, rather than pass the environmental cost onto the public, according to the latest Newsweek.

Page 3: Sep. 30, 2009

While education is important, it’s no secret why most students have come to college: They want that diploma ticket to a better job, to the bigger money.

But as that graduation date in-evitably creeps up, it might be easy for students to give in to the con-sternation about what happens af-ter they toss the cap and gown into the air and are thrust headlong into the real world. Economic woes aren’t helping to abate anxieties, and the career field seems to loom before students like the gaping maw of a slumbering dragon.

There also seems to be a popular sentiment in this day and age that a bachelor’s degree doesn’t hold the same weight that it used to.

“The most important thing is what you do in addition to your de-

gree,” said Angela Williams, associ-ate director of career education at the UA Career Development Center. “Work experience, coupled with a bachelor’s degree, is what employ-ers are looking for. Students always do well to involve themselves in any activities and organizations that will look good on a resume.”

The CDC, located in the Ar-kansas Union, offers a variety of services for post-graduate prepara-tion, including practice interviews, resume editing and counseling on how students should present them-selves professionally in the business world.

“There are a lot of tricks of the trade,” Williams said. “It is a com-petitive market out there. Every employer is looking for someone who can think on their feet. That, in essence, is the interview process. Students who know what they want and how to job search will be suc-cessful. Those skills are what we try

to equip people with.”Success after graduation,

though, is varied. Sam Burns, a UA graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, found a job doing research at the University of Arkan-sas for Medical Sciences after he graduated.

“It pays surprisingly well,” Burns said, “and it has inspired me to go to medical school. I didn’t know I wanted to be a doctor before I took this job.”

Stephen Coger, another UA graduate with a degree in English, has also found work in his field of interest. He currently teaches Eng-lish in Argentina.

But some other UA graduates have had a rather different experi-ence finding jobs after college.

Blaine Mosley graduated from the UA in 2008 with a degree in English and emphasis in creative writing, and his job search proved difficult.

“For six months after gradu-ation I was on the Internet, look-ing in the paper, going all around town applying for work. I sent out probably 2,000 resumes all across the country,” Mosley said. “‘I am a marketable commodity with a de-gree,’ I thought to myself. I applied for every kind of job, from forest ranger to manager of a corrugated cardboard box factory. Whether I was underqualified or overquali-fied for the job, I applied, anyway.”

Mosley received hardly any call-backs from the places to which he applied.

“Mostly, the only people who contacted me were from scams or pyramid schemes,” he said.

The job he settled for was cook-ing at the Flying Burrito, where he is currently employed.

“Truly, it is not what you know but who you know,” Mosley said. “I concluded that I have a B.A. in B.S. I feel like a castaway. I’m on the verge of making friends with a vol-leyball named Wilson.”

Kyle Wasser, who double-ma-jored in South American Studies and Spanish, did find work in his field but decided against it.

“I make more money delivering pizza than I could make being a translator,” Wasser said. “I learned a lot at the university, but for all the good my diploma has done for me I might as well have rolled it up and smoked it. I’m just going to save up money and ride a bike across South America.”

But while life after gradua-tion remains a toss-up mystery for some, not many students seemed to regret the experience and accom-plishment of earning a degree.

As far as students finding a job they love after graduation, Williams said, “If there’s a will, there’s a way. Know what you want and pursue it consistently. And if you find a job you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 | Page 3A GRADS

> Get your

tickets at the University Theatre Box Office, M-F, 12pm-3pm. 575.4752. $5 student tickets are also available for all shows Oct. 2-11.

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Students look to internships

for job experienceReality sets in for recent UA graduates

LARRY ASH Staff Photographer

Matt Hudson of Springdale graduated from the Walton College of Business last May. Hudson now works as a computer engi-neer in the Washington D.C. area.

With the state of the job market still in doubt, some students are turning to intern-ships, which not only provide valuable experience and ca-reer contacts, but can also take students in unexpected directions, they said.

UA student Jessica Powviri-ya interned last year at Univer-sity Relations, where she wrote press releases, learned the ba-sics of videography, wrote for local magazines and conduct-ed interviews on TV.

Through her experience at the on-campus internship, Powviriya said she was pro-vided opportunities and ad-vantages that other students might not receive.

“The position gave me free reign on projects, and it was a very open environment that was comfortable enough for me to ask questions,” she said.

The nature of the intern-ship helped shape her writing abilities, and also gave her ex-perience working with various supervisors. Powviriya said that each of her superiors had differing viewpoints, and this allowed for a more broad edu-cation about the same basic principles.

Powviriya is now working on her master’s degree, but she said the University Relations internship taught her more than any of her classes did.

“They gave us responsibili-ties and expected us to finish them,” she said.

For some students, intern-ships are not limited to those listed on Web sites and con-nected to colleges.

Eurostuma, a company that produces household items, needed a business position filled, so an internship posi-tion was created for chemistry major Courtney Peterson.

During her six weeks with TCT, the Eurostuma company share in Portugal, Peterson’s main objective was to intro-duce a new product – but she was also allowed to see the actual production process and the professional technology after spending weeks on re-

search and working on scaled-down versions.

“It definitely had the feel-ing of a business trip, since I had to smile constantly and be on my best behavior,” Peterson said.

Her biggest challenge, she said, was working in a country where she didn’t know the lan-guage and worked closely with two women who didn’t know any English.

But when Peterson’s work-load was completed in four weeks, she felt the experience was well worth the difficulty of a language barrier, particular-ly because the remaining two weeks were filled with travel to surrounding Portugal cities.

However, not all intern-ships lack the comfort of an on-campus position or the ex-citement of an international summer job.

Architecture major Kayla Freeman dreaded the telemar-keting internship that her fa-ther arranged for her. Eventu-ally, though, Freeman turned the job into a creative oppor-tunity, expressing her bore-dom and frustration through journal-like Facebook notes that detailed her avoidance of daily internship activities.

“I tried out different ac-cents and used many aliases when calling prospective clients, I brushed up on my Spanish watching Mexican soap operas while hanging out with my friends Juanita and Jorge in the break room, and I wrote a children’s story, ‘Little Larry and the Big Scary,’ potty training at its finest,” Freeman wrote. “I switched the decaf and regular coffee and later skipped out at noon to catch a baseball game with the boys.”

Even though Freeman clearly didn’t enjoy her intern-ship, she encourages other students to choose internships and work experience wisely.

“Any internship is a step in the right direction,” she said.

At the UA Career Develop-ment Center, officials help stu-dents find internships through listings on the eRecruiting feature of the CDC Web site, Career.uark.edu.

April RobertsonContributing Writer

Samuel LetchworthStaff Writer

BOOKSfrom Page 1A

not protect this author’s book.

“Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger

This is a classic favorite of censors and has been banned in the United States and Australia. In 1960, a Tulsa, Okla., teacher was fired for putting the book on

the 11th grade reading list. The teacher was reinstated, but the book was permanently removed from teaching programs.

“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

This book, ironically, is about censorship and those who ban books for fear of creating too much individualism and inde-pendent thought. In late 1998, this book was removed from

the required reading list of the West Marion High School in Foxworth, Miss. A parent com-plained of the use of curse words in the book. Subsequently, the superintendent instructed the teacher to remove the book from the required reading list.

“Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck

Several months after the book’s publication, a St. Louis

library ordered three copies to be burned for the vulgar words used by its characters. It was also once banned in Kansas City and in Oklahoma.

Even books that have been published recently, like the “Harry Potter” series and Ste-phen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” have been banned from various libraries and schools across the country.

Page 4: Sep. 30, 2009

Remember to check out UATrav.com for daily updates.OPINION

Phone: 575.8455 | E-mail: [email protected] 4A | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 Editor: Kimber Wenzelburger | Managing Editor: Tina Korbe

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER

Give the president a breakIs President Obama a terrorist?Since Obama’s election, our country has

been flooded with rumors, speculations and even accusations about a multitude of his policies. Not only is Obama consistently ac-cused of being a socialist, communist, Muslim, (you name it), conservative extremists have even gone so far as to accuse him of being a terrorist.

During the election, then candidate-Obama promised, among many other things, to shift the focus of the War on Terrorism from Iraq to Afghanistan. Most conservatives assumed this to be more Obama rhetoric. This was talk spe-cifically geared to give Obama the appearance of being dedicated and ready to fulfill his fu-ture role as “commander-in-chief.” Certainly, in an election against a war hero, Obama needed to say something to express readiness to handle the militaristic responsibilities that come with being president of the United States.

The question is: In his eight months in office, has Obama actually followed up on his promises to fight terrorism and to keep us safe?

Obama has stated four main problems with the situation in Iraq: inadequate security and political progress, strains on the military, the regrouping of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and a strategy that is too old to be effective. Each of these points is mostly valid.

That’s not to say President Bush was a failure in his effort in Iraq. To say the world is less safe now than it was before we invaded Iraq is not justifiable – after all, the question of motives for invasion aside, Saddam Hussein is no longer in control and Iraq is heading in the direction of a democracy, however slowly.

But there does come a point when it is time to consider how to turn over the reigns. The surprising thing about this is that most liberal-leaning Americans have been in favor of leaving Iraq for some time, while most conservative-leaning Americans believe we should remain.

It seems ironic that conservatives, who

value the principles of hard work and owner-ship when it comes to domestic economic issues, would believe just the opposite when it comes to running the government of another country.

While a small business or corporation is not necessarily comparable to the government of a country, the principle is unchanged. It’s the core belief that people are better able to help themselves versus a government or, in this case, a larger government trying to do it for them.

Then comes the issue of Iraq versus Af-ghanistan. As previously stated, Obama heavily campaigned on refocusing our energies in Af-ghanistan and also believes that our attention in Iraq has significantly hindered our ability to fight Al Qaeda, which is continuously working to reorganize in Afghanistan.

To shift focus from Iraq to Afghanistan seems like a pretty logical plan of action considering Sept. 11 and the fact that the terror and devastation brought to American soil all stems back to Al Qaeda.

To this effect, Obama is increasing the troops located in Afghanistan by 17,000. This is against the will of many in Obama’s own party who want anything but more troops and more war. Obama has looked beyond simple politics and partisanship because he knows that the War on Terrorism, specifically defeating Al Quada, is essential to the safety of the American people. Even for an issue as complicated as

this country’s continuous War on Terrorism, it is easy to see that Obama has stepped up and made a firm commitment to fighting terrorism.

Further, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have made a sincere effort to improve political ties within the government of Iraq. Believing that the U.S. needs to responsibly remove troops from Iraq, Obama and Biden have ensured progress in removing our troops from Iraq and have done so in a way that best allows the Iraqi government to successfully retain control.

Regardless of whether you agree with their plan, they are unquestionably executing it just as they outlined it in their campaign – and that kind of follow-through is rare.

The bottom line is that Obama is working to ensure the safety of the American people. He is working regularly with Gen. Petraeus, Gen. McChrystal and other military leaders to take the best course of action in our quest to defeat those who wish to destroy this country. It would be nothing short of a miracle if every last one of us agreed with every detail of every plan of action to take.

Lastly, we have to remember we really don’t know everything that is happening. Sure, we can get online and research all we want, but most of what the military does on a daily basis is not broadcasted on live television or tweeted online. It doesn’t matter if it’s Obama or Bush – we just do not and will not have the ability to give a fully educated dissertation on how to solve the issue of the War on Terrorism.

So, let’s look at the facts that we have, believe in our military and our president, and stop all of the unnecessary bickering and name-calling.

And just in case you’re still wondering, the answer is no, Obama is not a terrorist, in my humble opinion.

Carter Ford is a columnist for The Arkan-sas Traveler.

I saw Groucho Marx the other day.I was on campus getting my bicycle permit

just before it happened.Actually, that’s a lie. I was on campus with

my bicycle talking to the people who were hand-ing out the bicycle permits and explaining to them why campus bicycle registration was not only unnecessary but a dubiously surreptitious ploy to make money off student cyclists in the future. Give a mouse a cookie and he’ll want to start charging for bicycle permits, as the saying goes.

I hopped on my bike and rode across cam-pus to Oakland Street, past the sorority houses, crossing Douglas Street and straight on ‘til morning. It was a route I had taken a hundred times before.

Now I want it to be known, for the record, that I wasn’t riding my Specialized Hardrock down that break-neck hill like a bat out of hell. More like a squirrel out of purgatory. And then this squirrel hit a raised patch of freshly dried concrete in the middle of the road that had spilled out of a construction truck from the close-by parking deck site and flew over his bi-cycle handlebars, clanging his unprotected head on the ground.

And that’s when I saw him.Old Groucho. He was in the sky, reclined on

a cloud, his caterpillar eyebrows curled around his black frame glasses. He had a cigar between his bared teeth and he was laughing at me in his patented “Meh-meh-meh-meh” cachinnation.

We exchanged a gaze and then he disappeared in a wisp of cumulus smoke.

I stood up, grabbed my bike, and walked it straight up the road to where my friend Alex Cogbill lives. He was on his front deck playing the guitar.

“Holy crap, what happened to you?” he said. He must have seen the blood on my face.

“I think I suffered a concussion,” I informed him. “I saw Groucho Marx in the clouds. We might need to play 20 questions for the next few hours.”

And that we did as I attempted to re-orient myself with the world. This proved to be a tall and confounding chore, because all the while the only thing I could hear was the beep-beep-beep THRASH-BANG-THRASH from the parking deck construction site two streets over.

“They do that crap at 4:30 in the morning sometimes,” my friend Alex said.

“Those blackguards made me wreck my

bike. They should be more careful where they spill their cement,” I said.

“Why don’t they just build more bike racks instead of spending $26 million on a new park-ing deck when we already have two?”

“Why do you think?” I said.“David Byrne from the Talking Heads has

been designing bike racks all across New York City. There’s one on Wall Street shaped like a dol-lar sign. I’m a welder and an artist. I’ll design a damn Razorback bike rack and put it on cam-pus. Hell, I’ll do the labor for free.”

And he will. Alex Cogbill, welder extraordi-naire and art student, will design and build bike racks for solely the cost of materials for any busi-ness, including and especially the University of Arkansas. You can reach him at [email protected].

So what’s the point, aside from shamelessly plugging my friend’s practically artistic endeav-ors? I guess it’s this: The superfluous and annoy-ing new parking deck construction, which we are paying $26 million to build, is a categorical misallocation of serious monetary and resourc-es. It is causing unnecessary unrest for the Gar-land neighborhood at large and, lest we forget, they made me wreck my bicycle.

But, like Groucho Marx said, “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them ... well, I have others.”

Samuel Letchworth is a columnist for The Arkansas Traveler.

The Arkansas Traveler welcomes letters to the editor from all interested readers. Letters should be at most 300 words and should include your name, student classification and major or title with the university and a day-time telephone number for verification. Letters should be sent to [email protected]. Letters appear in the order they were submitted as space permits. The editor reserves the right to edit or refuse letters on the basis of length, accuracy, fairness, liability and sensibility.

EDITORIAL BOARD TINA KORBE | Editor KIMBER WENZELBURGER | Managing Editor BAILEY MCBRIDE | News Editor

Constructing new parking deck is a mistake

In My Humble Opinion

CARTER [email protected]

The Laughing Cavalier

SAMUEL [email protected]

Fugitive film director Roman Polanski learned over the weekend that you can’t outrun the long arm of the law. Swiss police nabbed the confessed sex criminal as he arrived in Zurich to accept a film festival award. Now Polanski, 76, faces extradition to Los Angeles County, where prosecutors have waited more than 30 years for the rapist to show up for sentencing.

Polanski, who has been gallivanting around Europe scot-free since fleeing sentencing on his 1978 sex conviction, never saw it coming, but he certainly had it coming. Anyone who feels sorry for Polan-ski should understand what Polanski did to land in this mess. He drugged, raped and sodomized a frightened 13-year-old girl.

Polanski eventually pleaded guilty to having had unlawful sex with a minor but skipped the country before his sentencing. Since then, he has lived primarily in France. Not long ago, his victim, now married with children, reached a civil settlement with Polanski and publicly forgave him.

But that doesn’t settle Polanski’s debt with the law. Earlier this year, ruling on a petition to dismiss the initial charges against Po-lanski, a Los Angeles judge said the director might have a case based on judicial misconduct – but that the filmmaker first would have to return to the United States and turn himself in. Polanski refused. Now, assuming that the U.S. files a formal extradition request and that the Swiss court does the right thing and honors it, that decision may have been made for Polanski.

The cultural elite in Hollywood and in Europe are screaming bloody murder over the arrest. The Zurich Film Festival jury even re-leased a statement accusing the Swiss government of “philistine collu-sion” with American authorities. That’s a stomach-turning judgment, betraying a belief that Polanski’s status as an artist puts him above the law. Somehow, one doubts they would have reached this conclusion were Polanski a cleric and his victim an altar boy.

How fortunate are the people of Los Angeles County that their district attorney’s office believes celebrity and artistic accomplishment doesn’t give one the right to rape a child with impunity – and that it has a memory as long as its reach.

ROMAN POLANSKI AND THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW

GUEST EDITORIALThe Dallas Morning News

The sun will come outWe’re not sure there’s a less sure field than journalism right now.Last year alone, The New York Times grew perilously thin, The

Seattle Post-Intelligencer discontinued its print edition and The Rocky Mountain News folded entirely.

At The Traveler, we shivered at these stories – but only for a sec-ond. Then, we remembered we weren’t seniors.

Now, the cushion is gone. Many of us are seniors. And we’re a little antsy about the 2010 job market. So antsy, in fact, that most of us have either taken or plan to take the LSAT.

Not that a career in law is any surer: According to an e-mail from Smith Publicity, a firm that promotes the book “The Law School Admission Game,” law students are competing for half as many openings at big firms as they were last year.

The real point is, we’re as uncertain about the future as anyone we know.

But our careers as student journalists, at least, aren’t over yet – and, this week, we made it our job to find out what the job market will look like by the time we – and many of you – graduate this spring.

If it seems a little early to consider “Life After Graduation,” check out the deadlines for popular post-graduation programs. October and November don’t sound nearly as distant as May, do they?

If we don’t plan now, we won’t be prepared then. And that’s as true for freshmen, sophomores and juniors as it is for seniors. Internship deadlines are inevitably earlier than they ought to be – and, of course, as our advisers say, “you have to have had an intern-ship to get one.”

So, check out the job forecast on the front page. Find out what the Career Development Center and the Honors College have to offer you. Read UA graduate success stories in both News and Lifestyles. We think you’ll feel a little bit better after you do.

After all, as our new Web site has taught us, the best way to face the future is to embrace it. UATrav.com represents our simultaneous commitment to timeless journalistic principles (Is there anything more journalistic than reporting news daily?) and effective innova-tion (Why insist on delivering news only in print when readers really want it online?). The nearly 10,000 unique visitors and more than 43,000 page views we’ve received tell us we must be doing something right.

In fact, now that we think about it, we’re not sure there’s a more sure field than journalism: The Internet’s not going anywhere soon.

We bet your future’s surer than you think, too.

Cheers,

Tina KorbeEditor

Letter from the Editor

Page 5: Sep. 30, 2009

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 | Page 5ANEWSHonors College provides

unique opportunities for UA students

throughout their college career, beginning with the most basic element: choosing a major. At the CDC, this is established by not only students’ natural abil-ities, but also their everyday interests and work values.

From there, the CDC helps students develop skills to ac-company their degree pro-grams – and the Professional Development Institute, with more than 1,600 UA students as members, “is maybe one of (the CDC’s) best features,” said Kevin Jones, a CDC career am-bassador. “I defi nitely encour-age students to use it.”

Through internships, study abroad, community service, re-search opportunities and more, PDI “helps students develop the professional skills needed to compete in the job search and/or graduate school appli-cation,” Batson said.

PDI “career coaches” deter-mine the best experiences for

individual students and guide them through workshops and presentations, like “Diversity in the Workplace” and “Profes-sional Interview Skills.”

“These are invaluable re-sources to job-seeking students, and they’re free,” said Madalyn Watkins, a CDC career ambas-sador. “(Signing up for PDI) was one of the best decisions I’ve made at the UA.”

Marshall Carter, CDC ca-reer counselor, agreed that the job search strategies learned through PDI give students an edge out of college.

“Their application materials are usually going to be in better shape, and their interview and job search skills are going to be better,” he said. “This counts in the ‘real world.’”

For students, the ultimate purpose of this work is to se-cure a job, preferably one that pays well and is in their fi eld of interest. But Batson said soon-to-be-graduates might have to shift their thinking, at least for a little while.

“Students need to adjust their expectations to be real-

istic about the job market and the economic environment,” she said. “No. 1, it may take longer to fi nd a job. No. 2, a graduate may have to relocate or be willing to within a few years. And No. 3, salary expec-tations need to be realistic – signing bonuses are rare these days.”

Greg Renick, a CDC career ambassador, said it’s vital that students take advantage of the CDC’s services – and because of his own experience at the CDC, Renick said he’ll be able to fi nd a good job, even in a competi-tive market.

“Today’s economy is the

toughest we have seen in years,” he said. “It is essential that students have a strong, tailored resume, great inter-view skills and the relevant ex-perience needed to land a job in such a tough market.”

The CDC is located in the Arkansas Union 607, Bell En-gineering 3158 and 3188, and Old Main 518. Students who want to set up a meeting with CDC offi cials can visit Career.uark.edu or call 479-575-2805.

“Students need to visit the career center – they’re missing an important part of their col-lege education if they don’t,” Batson said.

CDCfrom Page 1

The Big EventThe UA Career Development Center will host The

Big Event 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, on the fi fth fl oor of the Arkansas Union. The event will include a panel discussion with employers and a choice of presentations like “Your Personal Brand” and “Gut Check – Questions for the Entrepreneur Wannabe.”

Register online at Career.uark.edu/students/events/bigevent.aspx.

COURTESY PHOTO

Many UA students are un-aware of the academic oppor-tunities at their fi ngertips. Amid the chaos of extracurricular ac-tivities, social engagements and educational responsibilities, stu-dents frequently fail to recognize one of the university’s academic goldmines: the UA Honors Col-lege.

The benefi ts of enrolling in the Honors College are numer-ous, program offi cials said. Par-ticipants have access to Honors sections of core courses and specialized Honors courses in all majors. Also, honors students enjoy the scheduling advantages of priority registration. If par-ticipants are able to satisfy estab-lished GPA and Honors course completion requirements, they are eligible to apply for Honors College study abroad and re-search grants.

Honors College opportunities vary within the different colleges on campus. Students in Fulbright and Walton colleges can enroll in Honors courses specifi c to their majors. The Honors College fun-damentally serves to unite Hon-ors programs available through various colleges through fund-ing and scholarship options. For instance, the program provides entering freshmen the opportu-nity to apply for an Honors Col-lege Fellowship.

More than 2,000 students are currently enrolled in the Honors College, and the program is ex-panding. The majority of those enrolling in the Honors College this fall were freshmen. Over the past three years, the retention rate for Honors College freshmen has ranged from 93 percent to 91 percent.

The Honors College often infl uences the college selection decision of prospective students. On Monday, Sept. 21, about 300

high school students attended the Honors College Convocation. The Convocation is an event de-signed to introduce potential stu-dents to the UA and the Honors program.

Many honors students say they don’t regret their decision to fulfi ll the rigorous Honors re-quirements.

“There was never really any doubt about participating in the Honors College for me,” chemi-cal engineering major Jill Ivey said.

Honors nursing student Lau-ren Bosch said she chose to be a part of the Honors program be-cause she wants something on her resume and transcript to set her apart when she applies for jobs after graduation.

“Especially in today’s job market, I think it is so impor-tant to have that little something extra that puts you above and beyond the others, and I think that being an Honors student lets employers know that you are a dedicated hard-worker who is passionate and focused about what you do,” Bosch said.

Honors College administra-tors are proud of the way the col-lege has developed and optimis-tic about its future, they said.

“I expect that enrollment in the Honors College and Honors program will continue to grow in proportion to the overall growth in the undergraduate student body,” said Honors College Dean Bob McMath, regarding the fu-ture of the Honors program. “We are continuing to emphasize not just the perks but also the oppor-tunities and responsibilities of participation in Honors.

“In communicating with new and current Honors students, we are using ‘discovery, creativity and service’ as a shorthand way of expressing both our expecta-tions of them and the opportu-nities which they can enjoy if they apply themselves to their studies.”

Elizabeth BostwickContributing Writer

Page 6: Sep. 30, 2009

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COMPage 6A | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 ADVERTISEMENT

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* Our Surcharges (incl. Fed. Univ. Svc. of 12.9% of interstate & int’l telecom charges (varies quarterly), 7¢ Regulatory & 92¢ Administrative/line/mo., & others by area) are not taxes (details: 1-888-684-1888); gov’t taxes & our surcharges could add 7% - 27% to your bill. Activation fee/line: $35.IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION:

Page 7: Sep. 30, 2009

Family and footballBring hype to the HillWednesday in Lifestyles

E-mail: [email protected]|Phone: 575.7540Page 1B | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 Lifestyles Editor: Brian Washburn | Assistant Lifestyles Editor: Lindsey PruittLIFESTYLESTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER

Check Traveler Top 5 next week for most memorable football

moments.

Books we wish were banned

big textbooks...1.

2.

because books that cost an arm and kill our legs should be half the size and paper-back.

anything by faulkner...

becausesentencesshouldn’t be halfa page: Wehave to breathe.

wuthering heights...

because here’s to the most depressing romance ever. Where’s the love?

anything about vampires...

Anything too dense...

because, if we have to look up more words than we don’t, we’re wasting our time.

TravelerTop 5

3.

4.

5.

because we get it. Vampires are hot.

Sarah Colonna has traveled quite a distance from her home-town of Farmington to her cur-rent position as a comedy writer for the “Chelsea Lately” show on the E! Network.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Colonna received her bachelor’s of art degree in drama and studied theater under such instructors as Kent Brown, Amy Herzberg, Pat Romanoff and

Michael Riha.She remembers her time in

Fayetteville with fondness, and cited a summer trip to New York with classmates to see plays on Broadway and acting at a writer’s retreat at Mount Sequoyah as some of her favorite experiences with the UA drama program.

After graduating from the UA, Colonna moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting and comedy. Just like anyone trying to make it big in the world of show business, Colonna spent most of

her time waitressing and bar-tending at fi rst, and she looked for as many stand-up comedy op-portunities and commercial gigs as she could get.

“Anything to get a foot in the door,” Colonna said.

The move from Farmington to L.A. wasn’t a rocky shift, as might be expected for a small-town girl making the switch to big-city life.

“I had a little easier transition because my dad has lived in Cali-fornia a good portion of my life,”

Colonna said. “So I basically graduated and moved right after-ward. Everyone knows it’s hard to go to school and save money, so I stayed with him and worked at a restaurant and stashed all my money to get my own apartment in L.A.

“Once I did live in L.A. and live by myself, it was kind of weird,” she said.

Starting out on her own

Farmington native, UA grad makes it big on ‘Chelsea Lately’

COURTESY PHOTO

Sarah Colonna, a writer for “Chelsea Lately” on the E! Network, graduated from the University of Arkansas and stays close to her Arkansas roots, she said.

Erin RobertsonStaff Writer

See ‘LATELY’ on Page 4B

Ben Foster wakes up, naked and alone. He has no idea where he is, what his name is or why everything is so dark.

I’m reluctant to explain anything else because the real power of the movie comes from unfolding this mystery. But if you saw the trailer, you already know that Foster has been in hyper-sleep for a long time. He’s part of an interstellar voyage that has gone horribly wrong.

If any of this sounds famil-iar, note that “Event Horizon” director Paul W. S. Anderson is involved.

Thankfully, Anderson is just a producer and Christian Alvart is behind the camera in “Pan-dorum.” That doesn’t spare the movie from a certain amount of tedium, however. Just as in “The Bourne Identity,” the more our amnesiac recovers, the less

interesting the story turns out to be.

The movie’s high point? When Foster starts to regain some memories, he meets Den-nis Quaid, and the two set out to discover where they are, what happened to the rest of the crew and what is making those scary

People want the good life. They want to live the Hollywood lifestyle with an abundance of leisure, gigantic houses, fast cars, faster women and instant fame.

This could very well be the reason viewers are drawn to the popular HBO dramedy “Entourage.” The show has gained an almost cult follow-ing and has earned some criti-cal acclaim, including multiple Golden Globes for Supporting Actor for Jeremy Piven.

But despite Piven’s hilari-ous and often profanity-laced tirades, it is completely dumb-founding how this little show became a gigantic hit.

For those of you who have never seen or heard about

“Entourage” (which I fi nd a bit unlikely, even though it is on HBO), it focuses on the ups and downs of mega-movie star Vincent Chase and his (yeah, you guessed it) entou-rage, consisting of his actor older brother Johnny “Drama” Chase, his manager/best friend Eric Murphy and his driver/friend Turtle.

The show, created by Doug Ellin, is based on Academy Award-nominated actor/former rap mogul Mark Wahlber’s ladder-climbing experience in the entertainment business.

This might sound like an enticing premise for a premium cable-network TV show, but it’s the acting of a supposed movie star that makes the success of “Entou-rage” so ironic. Adrian Grenier (who portrays Vincent Chase on the show) does, as stated in a season one episode about his character’s movie, make walk-ing and talking look diffi cult.

But even though Grenier doesn’t have the acting chops to even persuade the most gullible viewer that he’s up to the standards of a Leo or Pitt,

it’s Kevin Connolly (who por-trays Eric Murphy) who makes some scenes a bit unwatch-able. Connolly’s overdramatic acting should maybe even give “Entourage” the title of a melodrama.

So it’s the acting ability of Piven, along with the comic relief of Kevin Dillon (who plays Drama – and yes, he is Matt Dillon’s brother), who save the show from completely plunging off a cliff and into a realm of terrible acting inhabited by such stars as Paul Walker, Freddie Prinze Jr., Hayden Christensen, and so on.

But that’s another time, another column.

This week’s season fi nale of “Entourage” will see the gang take a step away from each other and on to their own per-sonal ambitions. But though the plot lines are intriguing and the toys and girls are defi -nitely addicting, it’s still con-fusing how a show revolving around a movie star’s ability to run his famous life was built upon a line of cringe-worthy acting (and the over-the-top

storyline that suggests Jamie Lynn Sigler would consider dating a leech like Turtle).

“Entourage” might only have a couple of seasons left in it. It’s not known what direction the writers plan to take the show, but one thing is certain to those who have watched recent episodes: They’re setting up Vincent to win an Academy Award. Vincent as an Oscar-winning actor would add punch to the fi nale, but it’s laughable when you watch Grenier act.

“Entourage” has left view-ers with the taste of Hollywood on the tip of their tongue. It’s by far not the best – or even the most enjoyable – show on TV, but it will hook viewers and leave them wanting more.

And for future reference, for those who have caught the Hollywood bug from the show, maybe you should mimic the path of Ellin and take a show about a movie star, add glitz, glamour and girls, hire medio-cre-at-best actors and persuade viewers that with a little luck, charm and charisma, anything is possible.

HUG IT OUT: ENTOURAGE MIXES GLAMOUR WITH IRONY

Listen Up!

BRIAN [email protected]

“Pandorum” will entertain sci-fi fansMOVIE REVIEW

Adam RobertsContributing Writer

COURTESY PHOTO See PANDORUM on Page 4B

“Seven years of

college down the drain.”

-John Belushi in “Animal

House”

Page 8: Sep. 30, 2009

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Movies relax, entertain and bring people to-gether – three things college students strive for every weekend. And growing technology has made this beloved pastime easier than ever to enjoy: Though traditional movie rental galler-ies still exist, some students now prefer cheaper, more convenient ways to watch movies.

Less than a year ago, “redbox” was a foreign term with the connotation of a colorful card-board box. It has quickly turned into a house-hold name and is considered by many students to be the best choice for renting movies.

“Redbox makes more sense (than Block-buster) because I’m only going to watch this movie once,” junior Lindsey Camp said. “Also, I don’t have to be a Redbox member or any-thing, and it’s at Walmart.”

The convenience of Redbox is a huge perk for students, they said.

“Redbox is only a dollar,” sophomore Brit-tany Williams said. “It’s also really easy to work, and conveniently placed in places I would be going to, anyway.”

Nine Redbox locations are scattered throughout Fayetteville, including at Walmart, Walgreens and E-Z Mart. Customers browse DVD titles on the Redbox screen, and then the chosen DVD is vended. The $1 DVDs are due back at 9 p.m. the following night at any Red-box location – but because customers pay with a credit card, Redbox will charge $1 each night the DVD is not returned.

Despite the Redbox trend, Blockbuster still has ardent followers.

“Whenever I rent movies, I usually go to

Blockbuster because that’s where I used to get movies back home,” junior Robert Rembert said. “Blockbuster is better, in my opinion, be-cause there’s more of a selection and they don’t really enforce late fees.”

Though Blockbuster’s prices are consider-ably higher than Redbox – $4.09 for new re-leases and $1.99 for old releases – the selection is immensely greater and customers can keep movies for up to a week.

Blockbuster’s latest endeavor is an online rental service similar to Netfl ix. The customer creates a queue of movies online, receives the movies in the mail and has the option of ei-ther mailing them back or exchanging them in the store, according to Blockbuster’s Web site. There are no due dates, late fees or extra cost for Blu-ray DVDs. The pricing is the same as Netfl ix’s basic package – $8.99 a month for unlimited movies.

“I would rather just buy movies or rent them when I want rather than paying a fee ev-ery month,” junior Jessica McNair said. “I can see how Netfl ix would be good for large fami-lies, though.”

Netfl ix is the world’s largest online movie rental service with 10 million subscribers, ac-cording to its Web site. With the basic package, subscribers receive unlimited movies and TV shows streamed onto their computer, as well as unlimited mailed DVDs, with one DVD out at a time.

Subscribers create a queue of movies on-line, and Netfl ix sends the movies in the mail, with no due dates or late fees. Subscribers then return movies in a postage paid return enve-lope to receive new ones on their list.

Pricing plans begin at $4.99 a month for

one DVD out at a time with a limit of two a month and range as high as $47.99 a month with the option of having eight DVDs out at a time.

Many UA students – and movie connois-seurs – praise Netfl ix. Junior Samantha Her-rera’s favorite pastime is watching movies, and though she admits she watches them too often, she said she feels like she is getting a good deal using Netfl ix.

“You can get a ton of movies instantly on your computer, or if you order them, then it only takes a day to get here,” she said. “I don’t have to leave my house to go get them and it lets me set up a queue of movies, because usu-ally when I go to Blockbuster I forget what I want.”

With the growing popularity of portable de-vices, online rental programs are also offering streaming from the Internet. Though free with a Netfl ix plan, Blockbuster charges separately for online streaming. Even Apple has provided iTunes users with the option to buy or rent movies and watch them in minutes. Movies, available in standard or high defi nition, can be instantly downloaded to a computer, iPhone, iPod touch or a television through an Apple TV. Users have 30 days to begin watching the movie and 24 hours after that to complete the movie. Newer releases cost $3.99 while older releases are priced at $2.99.

The possibilities and opportunities to watch movies are endless in today’s society, but the ability to entertain will never fade. As Walt Dis-ney said, “Movies can and do have tremendous infl uence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objec-tives of normal adulthood.”

Honey, I’m home ... with a movie

COURTESY PHOTOS

Mille AppletonContributing Writer

Page 9: Sep. 30, 2009

LIFESTYLESTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009| Page 3B

University Theatre opens its 2009-10 sea-son with Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama “Death of a Sales-man,” directed by Michael Landman.

It’s been 30 years since this play was last performed for Fayetteville residents, but, now, the Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studio will revive this famous interpretation of the rise and fall of the American dream that has touched thousands of theatergoers since it de-buted in New York in 1949.

In an intimate new production by the uni-versity’s most creative team, Death of a Sales-man will begin Thursday, Oct. 1. I caught up with sound designer Michael Riha to find out what’s in store for those who go.

1.Why was this play chosen to be the season opener?

It was a struggle for us because we had a number of great titles on the table that we wanted to do. But we perform in collaboration with the Walton Arts Center, and they felt that this show will attract their patrons more than any other.

2. How did Bikes, Blues & BBQ affect rehearsals?

Well, we weren’t able to do sound checks because we couldn’t hear over the roar of the motorcycles until Sunday (laugh). The show had its final technical rehearsal yesterday, and today is the final dress rehearsal. Although it was difficult to hear each other during BBB, we managed, and we’re in pretty good shape now.

3. How many times has this play shown in Fayetteville?

“Death of a Salesman” debuted in Fayette-ville in 1954 and, then, it was done again in 1979. So it’s been exactly 30 years since it was performed here last time. It’s perfect timing to perform it again!

4. What does the scenery for the play look like ?

Traditionally, “Death of a Salesman” is a fairly long-standing script that is done in very similar ways throughout the country. It usu-ally has Willy Loman’s home represented in someway – either with an architectural frage-

ment or a fully realized set.

5. What distinguishes the approach of director Michael Landman from the tra-ditional one?

It’s a realistic script that has a lot of flash-backs scenes. The dialogue is fairly realistic and the characters are real people, but Mi-chael has taken a very expressionistic view on the show and really wanted the audience to get inside the head of Willy and the turmoil that he is feeling.

6. How is that reflected on the stage?There aren’t a whole lot of props, but what

props there are, are real – real cups from which they are drinking, real pillows on the constructed bad. So, it really strips it back to the essence of the scenes.

7. What kind of set will you use to make the main character as understand-able as possible for the audience?

Christina (an undergraduate design stu-dent) designed the set to be kind of nightmar-ish, emphasizing how everything seemed to be closing in on Willy.

8. Special effects?Lighting will play a big part. In the flash-

back scenes, characters are on the stage but not visible until light reveals them dramati-cally through a screen so the audience will see them as a part of Willy’s memory.

9. Who are the cast members in the play?

All the cast members are current students at the UA, but it’s the first time we’ve ever had so many international students on a program. We have 4 graduate directing students, and three of the four are international students. It adds another richness to their previous experiences and helps them to learn the American style of directing and communicating with actors.

10. How do they contribute to that American style of directing?

Its certainly expanding our scope to see how someone from Italy, Colombia or Korea works with American actors and technicians. Now they are directing, but, hopefully, in the future, we’ll have that kind of expansion with design, too.

Hurry up because seats are very limited!

UNIVERSITY THEATRE SEASON KICKS OFF WITH ‘DEATH OF A SALESMAN’

10 QUESTIONS WITH THE SOUND DESIGNER

WhenFive special students-only

shows: Oct. 1, 6- 8Six shows for the public:

Oct. 2-4, 10-11Where Walton Arts Center’s Na-

dine Baum Studios

PriceFree tickets for students for

student shows at the box office on campus 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

$5 tickets for students for public shows at the Walton Arts Center box office.

IF YOUGO

Ana DragicContributing Writer

COURTESY PHOTO

The UA Drama Department will kick off its fall season with a play that is both classic and timely. Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” both captures the essential joys and hopes of the American dream and mir-rors the current economic cri-sis, director Michael Landman said.

“It is a f a n t a s t i c play that can reach every-one. At some point or an-other, every-one has expe-rienced some of the feelings in this play,” leading actor Gabe Templin said.

Written in the 1940s, “Death of a Salesman” explores the belief that America is a frontier filled with opportunities for those who are willing to work hard – but it does that on the level of the family.

“The play shows how our personal values and dreams can be warped by societal and familial expectations,” Land-man said.

Protagonist Willy Loman believes being well-liked is the foundation of business suc-cess: He mistakes appearances for substance. Loman raises his son, Biff, to believe the same.

Biff is the star football

player for his high school, but, after high school, Biff struggles in life. He works hard at his job, but gets nowhere. Enraged at his dad, Biff returns home to figure out what went wrong.

“‘Death of a Salesman’ is a family drama exploring the pain of unfulfilled expectations, especially between fathers and sons,” Landman said.

That kind of emotion and s e l f - d e n i a l are at the heart of the abstract ex-p re s s i on i s t art move-ment – which “Death of a S a l e s m a n ”

exemplifies.Those involved in the pro-

duction of the play have ex-perienced that emotion them-selves – and hope to evoke it in their audience, as well.

“The play is going fantas-tically well!” Landman said. “We’re having a great time working on the show, find-ing the family dynamics, their joys and frustrations and the quirky aspects of some of the characters.

“The show will be pre-sented in an intimate space, the Nadine Baum Studios at the Walton Arts Center. In that theater, the audience is just a few feet from the actors, so ev-eryone can feel like a part of the action.”

Kelsey McQuearyStaff Writer

“It is a fantastic play that can reach everyone.”

— Gabe Templin

Page 10: Sep. 30, 2009

LIFESTYLES THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COMPage 4B | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

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wasn’t immediately successful. But Colonna recognized that her struggles and the hard work she put in to achieve her goals were meaningful to her experience.

“Every time I started to get frustrated, something would come along … like working on ‘The United States of Tara’ with Toni Collette,” she said.

Other credits to her acting ex-perience include a guest appear-ance on the USA hit show “Monk” with Tony Shalhoub, work on BBC’s comedy show “The World Stands Up,” a regular spot on Sci-Fi’s “Scare Tactics,” a semifinalist position on “Last Comic Stand-ing” and appearances on various other Comedy Central shows.

Colonna cemented her place on “Chelsea Lately” after appear-ing as a guest comedian on the Round Table. In May, she was hired as a full-time writer, and she continues to do stand-up comedy for the show.

“It’s a great job and it’s a lot of fun,” Colonna said. “It’s a great group of people, and I’ve been really lucky to be able to morph into that after 10 years of trying to get into the business.”

And fully into the business she is. Colonna recalled how “cool” it was to be at a restaurant recently with Al Pacino nearby.

“I was kind of in shock, like,

‘Wow, that’s Al Pacino,’” she said.Colonna described similar

experiences with other stars, like when Jennifer Aniston appeared on the “Chelsea Lately” show for an interview or when James Gan-dolfini came into a bar she was working at.

“Even at a grocery store, you’ll see someone randomly,” Colonna said.

Yet Colonna is reluctant to abandon her Arkansas roots. She usually comes home to visit fam-ily at Christmas and during the summer, and still remains a loyal Hogs fan.

Colonna spoke highly of her Arkansas background, and re-called getting together with fel-low UA alums working in Cali-fornia for the occasional dinner out.

“You know, anytime anyone asks me about school, (I tell them) I loved going to the UA,” she said. “I had so many great professors and so many friends … (and) a few of them are even working out here now. It’s great to have this camaraderie from back home.”

And though L.A. is a diverse city, made up of people from around the country and world, Colonna doubts her California peers will be able to let go of her association with the South.

“Yeah, I don’t think people will ever stop the ‘Did you marry your cousin?’ jokes,” she said. “But the few of us just usually make fun of them right back.”

‘LATELY’from Page 1B

It’s the Technicolor canvas, the floppy weight and, most of all, the vast sound: The vinyl record is a singular relic of music history. As CD sales continue to nosedive, the medium has taken the music industry by surprise, with vinyl sales nearly doubling from about .9 million units sold in 2007 to 1.88 million units sold last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

While all of the major labels are frantically remastering and reissuing their classics (Abbey Road, The Dark Side of the

Moon and OK Computer are among the top vinyl sellers), online retailers like eBay and Insound are enjoying abnormally high record sales. Even Best Buy is selling them again. So why are LPs back?

“I love the historical aspect of records,” said Buck Brady, a UA graduate student. “I love the process of taking out the record and dropping the needle. It’s a ritual.”

Brady is a follower of the Grateful Dead, a band with a notoriously large catalog, and he rummages through garage sales and local record stores, like Sound Warehouse, searching for rare finds.

“I’m really excited about this one,” he said, holding up a worn copy of Grateful Dead from the Mars Hotel on vinyl. “I grew up with my parents listening to records like (the Rolling Stones’) Sticky Fingers. But I didn’t start collecting them until a few years ago.”

Vinyl has always been the commodity for audiophiles and collectors alike, and, for the past two decades, records have become something of a folk art. A remnant of another time, discovered in attics and garages, dusted off and recycled.

“The artwork of vinyl is kind of like a lost art form,” said Jesse Clark, a student

at Fayetteville High School. “It’s cool to know that you’re preserving something so old, with all this tradition.”

Nostalgia is only one cause for the resurgence of vinyl. In a 2002 interview with The New York Times, David Bowie predicted that music would become “like running water or electricity,” a seemingly limitless commodity. He was right.

MP3s are readily accessible and usually available for free. They do not exist in a practical, physical sense, so they are easily exchanged. They are small packets of data, compressed and portable.

“Vinyl is how music was meant to be heard,” said Bo LeMastus, president of Crosley Radio, in a phone interview last week. “But in the 1970s, that disappeared with the 8-track tape and, eventually, the MP3.”

It’s likely that the vinyl’s comeback is actually a reaction to MP3s. Vinyl records are detailed, colorful, painstakingly created pieces of art. They are the antithesis of the MP3 format. Records store analog sound, so they sound warmer than tinny-sounding MP3s, and they come in ornate packaging, complete with liner notes and lyric sheets.

But who would wait outside

a music store (of the very few left) on the night prior to an album’s release when they could simply download it for free, several months prior? By the time an album is physically released, it’s largely irrelevant to its tech-savvy target demographic.

Now, though, the record is no longer a symbol of obsolescence.

Labels recently began including MP3 download cards with newer vinyl releases. Instead of paying $10 on iTunes for the Dodos’ new record, Time to Die, buyers could purchase

noises they hear in the dark. I almost wish Foster would

never have figured anything out. He could just run around dark corridors fighting off strange creatures for 90 min-utes. Having no answers might be more horrifying, like in 1997’s “Cube.”

But, eventually, of course, Foster does figure everything out. Slowly enough to keep viewers from leaving the theater, but not quickly enough to keep the reveals from being disap-

pointing. We waited too long to be rewarded with nothing more than “Twilight Zone” clichés and video-game characters.

German actress Antje Traue, for example, plays a tough, sexy scientist with a working knowledge of martial arts, an indeterminate accent and a sen-sitive side that only shows after she warms up to the main male character. There needs to be some sort of industry standard that says screenwriters are nev-er allowed to be within 20 yards of an Xbox 360.

On the plus side, the action sequences are made up of quick cuts and a constantly moving

camera, and the frenzied pace fits with Foster’s paranoia and confusion. We only get glimpses of the creatures, at first, but, when they are finally revealed in full, we don’t feel cheated – these are some scary-looking dudes.

The early scenes of Foster running through the ship is where “Pandorum” really earns my kudos. It would have been very easy to frighten the audi-ence through surprise. It could have just had the creatures sud-denly jump out around corners and make loud noises.

Going for the cheap scream is what most horror movies

seem to do now. But “Pan-dorum” sets up atmosphere and suspense. The audience is afraid of what might happen to the characters and not simply dreading the next startling bang or shriek.

“Pandorum” isn’t a work of great science-fiction, and there are plenty of flaws, but it’s a good, solid addition to the space horror genre. It entertained me, at least.

“Pandorum” is playing in Fayetteville at both AMC Fiesta Square 16 and at Malco Razor-back Cinema. It is rated ‘R’ for strong horror violence and lan-guage.

PANDORUMfrom Page 1B

Vinyl records making a comebackBrady Tackett

Assistant Lifestyles Editor

See RECORDS on Page 5B

LARRY ASH Staff Photographer

The 10th annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ festival was hosted in Fayetteville last weekend and attracted thousands of people to Dickson Street. Barbecue contests were hosted as part of the festivities.

BIKES, BLUES & BBQ

Page 11: Sep. 30, 2009

LIFESTYLESTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009| Page 5B

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Many people across the nation know and love the tale of Pinocchio, the wooden boy whose rapidly growing nose prevents him from telling a lie. It’s a story full of lessons in mo-rality – namely, the importance of telling the truth and the negative consequences that can arise from lying.

But what would happen if the beloved, ul-timately moral Pinocchio encountered the un-dead?

That’s the question that inspired UA gradu-ate Dusty Higgins to create “Pinocchio, Vam-pire Slayer,” a graphic novel detailing Pinoc-

chio’s quest to destroy vampires who have overrun his town.

Higgins, along with writer Van Jensen, cre-ated the novel based on the original story by Carlo Collodi, but it takes a much different route than the fluffier Disney film. In Higgins and Jensen’s novel, Pinocchio’s wooden nose isn’t a simple truth barometer: It’s used to im-pale vampires.

“We approached the story as if maybe Pi-nocchio wasn’t meant to live happily ever after. With a continual supply of wooden stakes and no flesh or blood to worry about, he’s really the perfect weapon against the undead bloodsuck-ing menace,” Higgins said, according to a press release from Slave Labor Graphics Publishing, which will publish the novel.

Higgins, who received his bachelor’s degree of art in 2003 and is pursuing a master’s in journalism at the UA, is a former cartoonist for The Traveler. He credits his time at the paper with helping him “develop a professional at-titude” and acquire “real world skills” to ad-vance his craft.

And it’s a craft that happened almost by chance. Higgins said it was his friends in high school who encouraged him to continue his drawing hobby in college, and once he arrived at the UA, Patsy Watkins, chair of the journal-ism department, also was a source of support.

“After I showed her some of my drawings, she said that I could make money doing what I loved,” Higgins said.

Watkins’ advice turned out to be quite pro-

phetic: Higgins’ novel is set to hit stores in late October. But it wasn’t without effort.

“It’s very difficult to get published in the comic world,” Higgins said.

But, after exploring their options, Higgins and Jensen settled on SLG, a company whose work they “respected and liked.” Most impor-tantly, SLG also gave them more creative con-trol than other comic book publishers, Higgins said.

Higgins’ plans for the future include pub-lishing two sequels to Pinocchio’s dark tale, as well as two other unnamed projects.

“Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer” will be avail-able in October through Amazon and at major bookstores.

Justine HarringtonContributing Writer

UA graduate student publishes fi rst graphic novel, ‘Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer’

ALEX LANIS Staff PhotographerStudents engage in live action role play on the Arkansas Union Mall. The sport includes fantasy fighting with homemade weapons.

LARPING ON THE LAWNa vinyl copy with an included MP3 copy for roughly $13 from Insound.

“If I can fi nd a new album on vinyl, and it comes with an MP3 download, of course that’s a great deal,” Brady said.

Even iTunes, the top music seller, bowed to the trend with the recent release of iTunes LP, a feature that seeks to recreate the visual experience of vinyl with animated liner notes, photos, lyrics and artwork.

However, many fi nd it strange to include MP3 downloads with the vintage vinyl collection. Instead of replacing vinyl, the MP3 has bonded with the antiquated format. It’s a strange synthesis and a hard sell for retailers like iTunes.

“Our customer base is split between an older demographic that likes old wooden turntables and a younger demographic that wants good performance,” LeMastus said. “Over the past three or four years, the younger demographic has really picked up.”

That demographic has changed the music industry into a more diverse marketplace, resurrecting an outdated medium and reinventing the current one. This hybrid of fi delity and portability could serve as a new kind of medium that unites seasoned crate-diggers with the iPod generation.

RECORDSfrom Page 4B

Page 12: Sep. 30, 2009

DOWNTIME THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COMPage 6B |WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009

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COMPLETE THIS GRID SO EVERY ROW, COLUMN, AND 3X3 BOX CONTAINS EVERY DIGIT FROM 1 TO 9 INCLUSIVELY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19) TODAY IS A 7.The work will get done. You’ll make sure that happens. Get help from a partner who already knows how to do the job.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20) TODAY IS A 5.Let a partner deal with some of your worries. Settle back into your regular routine; it’ll be relaxing.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 21) TODAY IS AN 8.You’re doing well at keeping the details together. If you don’t feel up to the chal-lenge, hide out and wait.

CANCER (JUNE 22-JULY 22) TODAY IS A 6.More family time is required. Listen to a shy person. It’ll take a while, but you’ll learn a lot about this person.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) TODAY IS A 8.Your genial attitude makes you easy to be around. If you really want them to mind you, however, be a bit more strict.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22) TODAY IS A 6.Continue to proceed with caution. Follow through with the things on your list. It’s OK to start new projects, too.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22) TODAY IS AN 8.Whatever worked yesterday won’t work today. Take a practical view. By the end of the day you’ll be back on top.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21) TODAY IS A 5.You thought you knew exactly what the score was ... and you were wrong. Now, take charge and fi x your mistakes.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21) TODAY IS A 6.Make a plan, but also deter-mine the plans that others have made. That should be easy to fi gure out, because they’re trying to convince you to change. Keep your own objectives in mind.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19) TODAY IS A 5.You tune right into what others need. Once you get started, helping them is easy. Assert yourself as needed.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18) TODAY IS A 7. If you’re sure that you’ll care about the issues next week, hold your ground. If you don’t care, don’t cry.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20) TODAY IS A 5. Look into your heart before you make a commitment. You’ll waffl e during the day. By tonight you’ll have decided.

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Classi! ed deadlines are 11 a.m. two days before publication date. The Arkansas Traveler is published Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays throughout the academic year except holidays and examination periods. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.

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Page 13: Sep. 30, 2009

SPORTS

Arkansas may have lost to Tennes-see 1-0 in its Southeastern Conference opener Friday night, but Razorbacks coach Erin Aubry couldn’t have been happier.

The Razorbacks didn’t score, but re-corded 18 shots, including nine on goal.

“We walked away from Friday’s game and we were ecstatic,” Aubry said. “We were ecstatic in our style of play, (but) we didn’t win. That’s part of it, unfortu-nately. We got more out of Friday night losing and playing that caliber of soc-cer than we did all nonconference win-ning.”

Aubry said winning will come, but the most important thing is for the team to play its style of soccer.

“Of course we want to win and there’s been no doubt about that,” Aubry said. “You ask any one of the players, you ask anyone on the staff, that’s the first thing out of our mouth, we want to win. It’s

important for us to get back on the win-ning side of it, but it’s not our focus.

“Our focus is to play our style of soc-cer and do it very, very well.”

Arkansas (6-2-2, 0-2 SEC) will look to pick up its first SEC win this weekend at Auburn on Friday and at Alabama on Sunday. The Razorbacks were shut out in the losses to Tennessee and No. 8 Georgia (2-0), and Aubry said the team is still adjusting to the step up in compe-tition in conference play.

“Undoubtedly (not scoring) was the pressure of the game that we hadn’t faced yet in our nonconference sched-ule” Aubry said. “This is one thing that we’ve certainly vowed to change is to make sure that our nonconference schedule has some tougher challenges in it. (Games) where our players know when they’re in front of the goal, they might only have one or two opportu-nities a game and they have to finish them.”

Despite the 0-2 start in conference

play, Aubry said the team has responded well and is looking to improve in areas they struggled with in their first week-end of conference action.

“The mentality of the team, the chemistry of the team, is all very, very good right now,” Aubry said. “We are still trying to change a bit of a psychological culture, though. Our focus is to get bet-ter and do the things that we were strug-gling in this weekend, do them better next weekend. Finishing under pressure, that’s something that we’ve got to over-come. That’s going to be our focus.”

Men, women’s cross country head to Wisconsin

The Arkansas men and women’s cross country teams won the Arkansas Invitational and MSSU Stampede with ease in the opening meets of their 2009 seasons.

Both squads will face much stiffer tests at the Wisconsin adidas Invitation-al Saturday in Madison, Wisc.

“We’re looking forward to this meet

this weekend up in Wisconsin,” Buck-nam said. “The competition looks to be stiff, it’s going to give us a real challenge. Some outstanding teams are going to be there, traditional powers. We get a wide cross-section from schools from out east and out west and in the Midwest.

“It’s a good meet on our schedule. It’ll give us some preparation for the Chili Pepper race, which we expect to have a good field for as well.”

The race will be the first big event for freshmen Solomon Haile and Cameron Efurd. Haile won the Arkansas Invita-tional and Efurd finished 19th in his col-legiate debut at the MSSU Stampede.

“(They need to) get up in front and run, literally,” Bucknam said. “You’ve got to test your mettle, you’ve got to see where you’re at. We need to experience a big race. We need to step up to the plate and find out where we’re at fitness-wise and where we’re at mentally.”

Leave it to Jerry Jones, the only University of Arkansas alumnus with both the resources and the in-fluence, to strike a deal to bring his alma mater’s football team across state lines to play in his backyard every year for the next decade.

The highly-visible Dallas Cowboys owner and self-made bil-lionaire will get his wish Saturday when the Razorbacks restart their annual rivalry with Texas A&M, a ten-game series to be played at the newest and grandest football stage on the planet.

Mr. Jones and I have a lot in common. We are both North Little Rock natives, we are both Razor-backs, and we would both like to be the billionaire owner of the Cowboys. He’s a little ahead of me in realizing that last item, but nev-ertheless, great minds think alike. He just thought of it first. I digress.

Call it Jerry World, call it Texas Stadium Twice as Nice, or call it the most expensive inoperable spaceship on the planet if you want to. Jones built a 1.5 billion-dollar football fiefdom in the middle of an economic recession, and we might as well enjoy the spectacle in case someone can’t pay the mortgage a few years down the line.

The series with A&M will also be something to appreciate, as the Hogs don’t have too many rivals – Arkansas and LSU play for a trophy every year, but it’s not like the Hog game is circled on the Tigers’ schedule each year. It’s a game between border states while the Alabama teams and Mississippi schools battle each other during Ri-valry Week. Arkansas fans certainly love to hate the Texas Longhorns too, and now there’s a bigger rivalry with Ole Miss for some crazy reason. But you can never have enough rivalries.

You’ve probably heard a few times now about ‘now-defunct’ Southwest Conference and how the Aggies and Piggies used to play each other every year, and how people used to do research in li-braries and watch black-and-white television and make fire. There is a dueling column on the far left of this page about the rich tradi-tion that once existed between the two schools, and it’s exciting to see these two teams to get together on a regular basis again.

But beyond the trip to Arling-ton, the Next-Wonder-of-the-World Dome (with a retractable roof “so the biggest Cowboy fan of all can watch from above,” as they say), the renewed rivalry and even the Texas State fair currently in ses-sion, there is a football game being played Saturday.

The Razorbacks have lost two in a row and looked really bad in their last game against a really good team. There’s no shame in losing to a top-five team on the road in the Southeastern Conference, but the Hogs looked like they had already lost the game in the first quarter. After a tough loss in a shootout in Fayetteville the week before, Arkan-sas went to Tuscaloosa and played with Georgia on its mind.

The Hogs now step out of con-ference to play an undefeated Texas A&M team, and with a two-game losing streak and a terrible three-some of Auburn-Florida-Ole Miss waiting when Arkansas gets back to SEC play, the Razorbacks need to get back on track in a hurry unless they want their current misfortune to snowball into six straight losses.

Matt Watson is the sports editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His col-umn appears every Wednesday.

Editor’s Note: David was the sports editor of The Arkansas Traveler from 1974-75, when he published his column “Ramblin’ On.”

“Every tradition grows ever more ven-

erable. The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. The tradi-tion finally becomes holy and inspires awe.” - Friedrich Nietsche

The renewal of the Arkansas-Texas A&M football rivalry spawns awe-inspir-ing reminiscences.

One of the most storied victories the Razorbacks ever reveled in occurred on Dec. 6, 1975, when the underHogs shel-lacked the Aggies, 31-6, and earned their first Cotton Bowl appearance in ten years.

“The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation.”

Indeed, anyone not holding reverence for the Razorbacks needs to reflect on the odds against the Hogs that day in Little Rock.

Texas A&M boasted the No. 1 defense in the nation and had just triumphed over Texas, 20-10.

Following the monumental conquest Arkansas ended up in a three-way tie with A&M and Texas for the Southwest Conference title with identical 6-1 records, but since A&M went to the Cotton Bowl in 1967 and Texas in 1974, Arkansas garnered a berth to face Georgia.

Prior to the tussle, Arkansas’ offensive coordinator Bo Rein quipped, “Person-ally this is the best defense I’ve seen since Michigan State in 1966 with Bubba Smith and George Webster.”

After the victory became self-evident a spine-tingling cheer erupted from the Hogs faithful in War Memorial Stadium.

“Hey, hey, ho, ho. Arkansas to the Cotton Bowl.”

As chronicled in the Arkansas Democrat sports section the next day, some Arkansas fans chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Texas A&M to the toilet bowl,” as the disconsolate Aggies trudged to their dressing room.

The signature, game-breaking play occurred on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Arkansas quarterback Scott Bull to diminutive 5-9 wide receiver Teddy Barnes, who soared to out-leap Lester Hayes, future great Oakland Raiders’ de-fensive back, with 34 seconds remaining in the first half to propel the Razorbacks’ momentum-smashing conquest.

Bull remarked, “I never saw Teddy on that pass. I had an idea where he was sup-posed to be. I was flat on my back and I never saw him catch it. I have a black eye from that game but it was worth it.”

Meanwhile in the woebegone Aggies’ dressing room, two All-American line-backers exchanged a highly emotional conversation, which I overheard while writing a sidebar on the game in my first year as a professional sports writer for the Springdale News. I had just gradu-ated from the University of Arkansas in journalism after a year’s sojourn as The Traveler sports editor.

Southwest ClassicRazorbacks try to end los-ing streak on the big stage in Texas

Phone: 575.7051 | E-mail: [email protected] WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 |Page 7BSports Editor: Matt Watson | Assistant Sports Editor: Harold McIlvain II

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER

Swinging for the Fences

MATT [email protected]

COMMENTARYFOOTBALLGUEST COMMENTARY

A&M rivalry a tribute to

the pastDavid Lanier

Special to The Traveler

Hogs must rise above the show

Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tex-as, has been a media-hype machine for quite some time now. Its hefty price tag, gargantuan features and the prominent events and figures associated with it have made the new home of the Dallas Cowboys out to be a Colosseum of sorts, a spectacle in itself to draw thousands upon thousands of fans out to the great-est show on Astroturf.

Whether or not the stage itself is enough to upstage the games played upon it is a moot point for Cowboy owner Jerry Jones, who said he built the stadium so the Razorbacks, his alma mater, would come play there.

“My dream when I was building Cowboys Stadium was that that stadium could become Razorback Stadium-West.

I think that’s what it is,” Jones said at a press conference in Northwest Arkan-sas.

The setting provided at Cowboys Stadium just outside of Dallas will give Arkansas a chance to play in one of the most heavily-recruited areas in the country for high school football play-ers.

“This is all about our school,” said Jones, who co-captained the 1964 Arkan-sas squad that won the national cham-pionships. “This is all about the Razor-backs are far as I’m concerned. But you also say to that whole north Texas area – which is the greatest recruiting area in the country today, not to demean my North Little Rock alumni and all of the people around the state – but it’s criti-cal for the University of Arkansas, for our future, that the grandmothers and

the mothers of the athletes, of the high school players, know that they’re going to get to see their sons and grandsons play in Razorback Stadium-West.”

There are currently more than 20 players from the state of Texas who suit up for the Hogs every Saturday. Other college teams have agreed to play in the Cowboys Stadium for the exposure, including a marquee match-up be-tween two top 25 teams, Oklahoma and Brigham Young, earlier this season.

“This is a strategic move for Arkan-sas. A strategic move for our fans to sup-port the Razorbacks playing in Dallas, because that’s how you’re going to get the attention of some of the finest ath-letes in the country that play football, to come up to Northwest Arkansas and

SOUTHWEST SPOTLIGHT‘Classic’ a strategic showcase for recruiting

Senior safety Matt Harris said he wouldn’t know what to think when he enters Cowboys Stadium for the first time.

It’s a stadium Harris said he is looking forward to seeing when Arkansas has a walk-through before the game.

But as a Richardson, Texas, native, Harris knows every-thing is supposed to be bigger in Texas. And so is the $1.1 billion stadium the Razorbacks will play in against Texas A&M at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s going to be huge and colossal,” Harris said of the venue. “It’s just like going into the Romans. I’ve never seen it before. But (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones went all out.”

When Harris finally walks into the stadium, he said it might be difficult to ignore the largest high-definition televi-sion in the world that features 25,000 square feet of display.

“The scoreboard looks fake because it is so unbelievable,” Harris said. “It looks unreal on television.”

Harris said the game would be even more meaningful for him since his father Cliff Harris played for the Cowboys and appeared in five Super Bowls for the franchise.

“I’m proud of my dad and the accomplishment he has had,” Harris said. “And to play on the field for the same fran-chise he played for is a big deal for me.”

But with more than 25 players on roster from Texas, Har-ris won’t be the only player looking forward to the debut at the Southwest Classic.

Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino said the whole team is looking forward to the match up.

“We are looking forward to going to Dallas and playing A&M,” Petrino said. “I think it is exiting for our players and our program. I think it’s great for the tradition for the old Southwest Conference days.”

But Petrino said he couldn’t contain his excitement ei-ther.

“We can’t wait,” Petrino said smiling. “I’m never been in the Taj Mahal before.”

Quarterback Ryan Mallett said all the enthusiasm before the game reminded him of postseason play during high school.

Excitement for ‘Palace in Dallas’

RON JENKINS Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT

The video board at Cowboys Stadium is the largest high-definition TV in the world, an estimated 80 yards in width.

See TRIBUTE on Page 8B

Matt WatsonSports Editor

Harold McIlvain IIAssistant Sports Editor

OLYMPIC SPORTS NOTEBOOK

Soccer looks to improve execution under pressureJimmy Carter

Assistant Sports Editor

See RECRUITING on Page 8B

See EXCITEMENT on Page 8B

See OLYMPIC on Page 8B

Did you know?Razorback defensive tackle Malcolm

Sheppard averages 1.5 tackles for loss per game, second-best in the SEC

Page 14: Sep. 30, 2009

It will be hard to avoid anything that isn’t related to the playoffs dur-ing the next few weeks.

Baseball will be starting up post-season soon and will be dominating television sets for a while. Golf just finished up last week while NASCAR is still racing for a champion.

But not all playoff systems are created equal. Some are more excit-ing than others while some are just confusing and long.

Mark your colander for these postseason events that are better than others.

10. PGA Tour: No one under-stands the system, but Tiger Woods was able to win the FedEx Cup and $10 million dollar prize last weekend.

The system has been tweaked every year of its existence, but the PGA Tour actually received positive results from the four tournaments in five-week format this year.

Once they stick with the system and fans understand it, golf could have a playoff system fans really

want to see. But it still is strange for Phil Mickelson to win the last event and it be somewhat meaningless.

9. NASCAR: The nice element from the chase for the Sprint Cup is viewers actually know who can win it, as the field is eliminated down to 12 drivers rather than leaving 30 or more golfers in the FedEx Cup field.

There have been a couple tweaks to the system that Jimmie Johnson has dominated lately, but fans of the sport know what to expect. However, the driver with the most points tends to protect the lead, which doesn’t seem right.

8. NBA and NHL: Both leagues send 16 teams to the postseason while having 30 overall teams. And for those fellow journalism majors who can’t do math, that’s more than 50 percent of each league. It’s actu-ally 53.3 percent.

Both sports are saved from the quality of play toward the end of the playoffs. But the NBA playoffs are literally another two-month season of their own. No one wants to wait that long for the Finals.

7. Fantasy sports: Although this isn’t a sport, fantasy playoff weeks can’t get much better when it comes to sports like baseball, foot-ball and basketball.

After a long season of positioning your team for a postseason run, the season can come down to something as minute as a double play turned by a second baseman named Clint Barmes. And I know because it hap-pened to me.

6. NCAA baseball: This event at Omaha, Neb., has a charm of its own.

There is a right amount of teams with eight in the double elimina-tion format with the winners of each bracket playing a best-of-three series. And the format has proven ground for great stories like Fresno State winning it all.

And it can be an event Razorback fans might be able to attend again during the last year at Rosenblatt Stadium.

5. MLB: Drama, drama, drama. It’s all about the small moments of tension that create memorable game series. And there are too many great moments to remember. The Red Sox overcoming the Yankees in 2004 was storybook. And the classics home runs of Joe Carter and Kirk Gibson make the World Series great.

4. NCAA basketball: Everyone becomes a fan of college basketball when March Madness rolls around. It’s the only time of the year other than the Super Bowl where everyone is a sports fan.

And a weak regular season makes this event better.

3. NFL: There are negatives like the Wild Card weekend. But there is a reason advertisers spent millions of dollars for ad space: the Super Bowl. It’s another sport that tran-scends our culture.

2. NCAA football: With no true postseason, the whole regular season is pretty much a giant, complicated playoff system – expect for smaller schools, which don’t get that benefit. Bowel season is great, too. But I’m on record of supporting the BCS.

It creates the best regular season in all of sports. And it makes the ‘postseason’ – the whole season –great.

1. World Cup: Nothing com-pares to the size and popularity of the World Cup. It perhaps should be on a list of its own. South Africa in 2010 should be another special event.

Harold McIlvain II is the assistant sports editor for The Arkansas Trav-eler. His column appears every other Wednesday.

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COMPage 8B | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 SPORTS

Wednesday, Oct. 7th, starting at 6 p.m. The one mile march will begin at the Union Mall. Events will conclude at the Greek Theater at the

University of Arkansas.

Wear your girlfriend’s pumps, your sister’s trackshoes, your mother’s fuzzy pink slippers, or the

shoes representing the women you care about and step out to make a difference!

Sponsored by RESPECT, SARPA,White Ribbon, Greek Life

Student-Run Television For The University of Arkansas

Deuces Wild

HAROLD MCILVAIN [email protected]

COMMENTARY

Ranking the playoffs: It’s the season of postseason

First-team All-American linebacker Ed Simonini asked second-team All-American line-backer Garth Ten Napel what the fi nal score was.

“31-6,” said Ten Napel, “unless they scored another one after the game was over.”

Then Ten Napel remarked, “Well, at least we lived up to tradi-tion. We choked.”

The Aggies’ tradition as play-ing second fi ddle to arch-rival Texas Longhorns had just ended a week prior to that, and Arkansas had not and still hasn’t fully recovered from its historic 15-14 loss to Texas in the Great Shootout of 1969.

So, what does this have to do with this Saturday’s renewal of the Arkansas-Texas A&M rivalry?

Lessons learned in the past distinguish tradition and invoke reverent moments of awe.

Just because the Razorbacks are mired in a two-game losing streak in humiliating fashion to powerhouses Georgia and Alabama doesn’t mean they are doomed to another horrendous season.

An emotional victory over Texas A&M could be the magic elixir the Razorbacks need to turn around their fortunes and propel them to a much more palatable season.

All they have to do is look back at the 1975 game and keep their faith in the future.

Those of us who witnessed that SWC shootout learned to never underestimate the Razor-backs when they’re seven-point underdogs.

That’s what makes sports so fascinating.

Arkansas could renew its sto-ried tradition of venerable success with another awe-inspiring victory in the house that one of its proud-est alumni Jerry Jones built.

TRIBUTEfrom Page 7B

“It feels like the playoffs in Texas because of the neutral site,” Mallett said. “That is what it feels like for me. I think it is going to be a big deal.”

But as much as the team is ready to play at Cowboys Sta-dium, Mallett said the team is ready to produce while there.

“We are looking to go down

there and put on a show,” said Mallett, who is a Cowboy fan. “We excited to go down there and play in that stadium. But we are not going to let that dis-tract us from going down there and executing. This is a business trip.”

Harris said the players from Texas are looking forward to the opportunity to play in their home state.

“It’s a huge deal,” Harris said. “We are really excited to play with emotion and passion

this week. We are looking to go down there against a Texas team in the Big 12 to show off the Southeastern Conference.”

Freshman defensive end Tenarius Wright hasn’t been to stadium. But Wright said he was amazed by the capacity of the 73-acre venue, which can hold more than 100,000 people.

“I see it on TV and it gives me goose bumps,” Wright said. “It’s crazy to see that many people watching a game at one time.”

EXCITEMENTfrom Page 7B

The 17th-ranked Razorbacks will face a highly competitive fi eld that includes seven other ranked teams, led by fourth-ranked Wisconsin, No. 7 Iona and No. 10 Georgetown.

“Michigan is third in the Great Lakes region, obviously Wisconsin (is good),” Buck-nam said. “Marquette is always a good team. Iowa has a good team, (they) always run well in cross country and they’re regular qualifi ers for the national cham-pionships out of a tough region. They’ll provide us plenty of com-petition.

“Iona, another top-10 ranked team. Plenty of competition, we’re looking forward to it.”

Bucknam said the decision on whether All-American Dorian Ulrey races will be made Satur-day. The junior ran in the World Championships over the summer and sat out the Hogs fi rst two meets.

“He’s climbing in his volume (of his workouts) and we cer-tainly don’t want to overdue it,” Bucknam said. “He won’t hold back and that’s kind of what we’re afraid of. He wanted to race two weeks ago, he wanted to race at Missouri Southern. (We’ve had to) cool his jets a little bit.”

Women’s coach Lance Harter said Saturday’s meet will be a balancing act between wanting to fi nish well and not overworking the team before the SEC Cham-pionships on Oct. 31. The fi eld features six nationally ranked teams, besides Arkansas.

“We’re kind of in a catch-22,” Harter said. “We want to do well in the SEC meet, strictly because of the pride of so many champi-onships that we have won in the SEC. As far as this weekend goes, we defi nitely want to try to show some good early season poise

and competitiveness. But, at the same we don’t want to sacrifi ce everything for the end of the sea-son.

“As a coach, it’s a fi ne line and we’re kind of walking on a razor’s edge.

Harter said Arkansas fresh-men Alyssa Allison, Taylor John-son and Keri Wood need to be tested and must use the event as an opportunity to acclimate themselves to big college meets.

“We have to (test the younger runners) because the season is short,” Harter said. “We’re only four and a half weeks away from the conference championships. It’s time to get it done. We’re go-ing to be unfortunately testing by fi re, but hopefully we won’t get burned. Maybe just a good sun-burn.”

Freshman Stephanie Brown and junior Jillian Rosen won’t run in the meet, Harter said. Brown has recovered from mononucleo-sis is working her way back into shape, while Rosen continues to recover from a stress fracture and torn MCL and is a redshirt candidate, Harter said.

Pulliza, volleyball team look for fi rst SEC road win

The young Arkansas volley-ball team got its fi rst taste of the road last weekend in a pair of 3-0 losses, at Tennessee and at 17th-ranked Kentucky.

But, coach Robert Pulliza said the Razorbacks (7-8, 1-3 SEC) showed growth in the losses and will look to pick up their fi rst conference road wins Friday at Georgia (10-4, 1-2) and at Au-burn (9-5, 1-2).

“Defi nitely a tough weekend on the road,” Pulliza said. “But, every weekend on the SEC (that) you’re on the road is a tough weekend. This is probably (Ar-kansas’) toughest swing in the SEC right now. Tennessee and Kentucky are very physical, very good.

“But I think we got better throughout the weekend.”

OLYMPICfrom Page 7B

1. FLORIDA2. ALABAMA3. LSU 4. GEORGIA5. SOUTH CAROLINA6. MISSISSIPPI7. AUBURN8. TENNESSEE9. MISSISSIPPI STATE10. ARKANSAS11. KENTUCKY12. VANDERBILT

TRAVELER SPORTS SEC POWER RANKINGS

SECPOWER RANKINGS

1.

2.

3.

play football,” Jones said.Not only does Arkansas play-

ing in north Texas provide the Razorbacks with exposure in front of prospective prep players, but the lure of playing in an NFL stadium will be a selling point for

high schoolers to come to Fay-etteville, he said.

“Over 70 percent of the play-ers we have in the NFL don’t have a father-fi gure. They listen to their grandmothers and their mom-mas. Those mommas and grand-mothers want them to play where they can come see them, so north Texas players want to come out and know if they’re Razorbacks, they’ll be able to go out and look

at them in Cowboys Stadium,” Jones said. “And they’d also like to know that Cowboys Stadium has a relationship with the NFL, which there’s not a momma or grandmomma that doesn’t envi-sion their son maybe being in the NFL some day. Let’s use it for the Arkansas Razorbacks.”

“It’s a big deal. It’s not just an ‘arm-waving’ deal. It’s the real deal,” Jones said.

RECRUITINGfrom Page 7B

Page 15: Sep. 30, 2009

CROSS COUNTRYWisconsin InvitationalSaturday at 11 a.m.Madison, Wisc.

SPORTSTHE ARKANSAS TRAVELER |UATRAV.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 | Page 9B

SOCCERArkansas vs. AuburnFriday at 7:30 p.m.Auburn, Ala.Arkansas vs. Alabama

VOLLEYBALLArkansas vs. GeorgiaFriday at 6 p.m.Athens, Ga.Arkansas vs. AuburnSaturday at 11 a.m.Auburn, Ala.

MEN’S GOLFFighting Irish Gridiron

Golf ClassicMonday and TuesdaySouth Bend, Ind.

RAZORBACK

WEEKLY CALENDAR

FOOTBALLArkansas vs. Texas A&MSaturday at 6:30 p.m.Arlington, Texas

SWIMMINGRed and White MeetSaturday at 9:00 a.m.FAYETTEVILLE

Passing Offense:After being a rush-fi rst offense for the majority of the team’s 115-year history, Texas A&M has transformed its play-calling behind 6-5, 243-pound dual-threat junior quarterback Jerrod Johnson. Johnson supplemented incumbent starter and fan-favorite Stephen McGee to-wards the end of last season and has not slowed down in his development this season as he has led the Aggies to the best total offense in the Big 12 with 574.3 yards per game. In the team’s fi rst three games of the 2009 season, Johnson has been near perfect with 961 passing yards and a 67.6 percent completion while averaging 320.3 yards per game complemented by nine touch-downs and zero interceptions. His passing yards per game ranks only behind the perennial pass-fi rst offense of Texas Tech’s Taylor Potts in the Big 12. Thus far, his favorite targets have been to tight end Jamie McCoy and receivers Jeff Fuller and Ryan Tannehill. Each of those receivers has caught over ten passes in the fi rst games for averages over 55 yards per game. Fourth string receiver Uzoma Nwachukwu has hauled in the most touchdowns with three. The only major negative behind the team’s early success has been their opponents’ (New Mexico, Utah State and UAB) overall records of 2-9.

GRADE:

Rushing Offense:The Aggies have not completely done away with their traditional roots of hard-nose rushing football. Al-though no longer an option-oriented offense as in years past, their 244 rushing yards per game ranks the team number one in the Big 12 - 30 yards per game higher than the next highest team (Kansas). Sophomore start-ing running back Cyrus Gray ranks second in the rush-ing attack with 213 total rushing yards behind quar-terback Jerrod Johnson’s 239 rushing yards. Gray has rushed for two scores on 44 carries, while Johnson has run 38 times for four touchdowns. Backup Christine Mi-chael has accumulated 187 yards on 28 carries with one touchdown.

GRADE:

Pass Defense:Although in the middle of the pack in the Big 12, Tex-as A&M’s pass defense has struggled noticeably in the team’s fi rst three games while allowing just over 200 yards per game on 5.5 yards per pass. The team allowed 334 yards (13.9 yards per catch) through the air against an inferior Utah State team in College Station and 210

yards against a winless New Mexico squad in the home opener. Veteran cornerbacks Trent Hunter, Terrence Frederick and Jordan Pugh lead the secondary in tack-les while true freshman Dustin Harris has also corralled over ten tackles. The team has also failed to produce an interception.

GRADE:

Rush Defense:Stopping the run has proven to be a detriment to the Aggies as the team has allowed 145.7 rushing yards per game and fi ve scores including 229 rushing yards by UAB last weekend. The average yards per rush allowed (4.2) ranks the team second to last in the Big 12 behind only Colorado. 6-3, 240-pound starting linebacker Von Miller has been the most active on defense with 11 solo tackles, but cornerback Trent Hunter and linebacker Kyle Mangan lead the team in total tackles with 20 and 19, respectively. Miller’s former high school teammate and opposite side starting linebacker, Garrick Williams, has also produced nine solo tackles and 18 overall. Mill-er leads the team with in an impressive eight sacks and the team has 14 overall for second-best in the Big 12. The team has only managed to cause four fumbles but maintains a plus-three turnover margin.

GRADE:

Special teams: Thus far, the Aggies have been fairly quiet on special teams. The Aggies have not been able to produce a touchdown on either a kickoff or punt return. When not performing as a corner on the defense, Dustin Harris averages 12.7 yards per punt return and Christine Mi-chael leads the team on kick returns with 170 yards on 24.3 yards per return. Kicker Randy Bullock has gone 3-of-4 on fi eld goals (long of 34 yards) and has con-nected on all 18 PAT opportunities.

GRADE:

Coaching:Head coach Mike Sherman fi nds himself operating a team very similar to Bobby Petrino’s Arkansas squad. After taking over the team last season, Sherman went 4-8 overall and 2-6 in conference including an unheard of 18-14 loss to Arkansas State to begin the season at home, an embarrassing 41-21 loss to Baylor and a 49-9 shellacking from arch-rival Texas. Sherman, a former Green Bay Packers head coach, has worked hard to build up the program within the state (only three play-ers are from outside Texas). But despite the 3-0 start to

begin the 2009 season, the team still has some work to do to catch up with multiple teams in the Big 12. The team hasn’t boasted a winning record since 2006 and has gone 3-12 in the team’s last 15 bowl games with the last win in 2001. The Aggies face their fi rst real oppo-nent of the season against Arkansas in the new outland-ishly lavish Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

GRADE:

First look at Texas A&M

FOOTBALL

Clint LinderStaff Writer

B+

A-

C

C+

C+

B

MAX FAULKNER Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones led the building of the $1.5 billion Cowboys Stadium for the 2009 season. Jones played for the Arkansas football team in the 1960s.

THE STAGE

MAX FAULKNER Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT

Today Show reporter Jenna Bush Hager gets a pre-season tour of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Page 16: Sep. 30, 2009

THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER | UATRAV.COMPage 10B | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 SPORTSOne-on-Onewith a Razorback

Razorbacks safety Matt Harris sat down with Arkansas Traveler as-sistant sports editor Jimmy Carter to discuss his hall-of-fame father and his bar fi ght backup. The senior has started the fi rst three games of the 2009 season at free safety after earning four starts and racking up 57 tackles and an interception in 2008.

How does the defense react when they hear the criticism about your performance?We obviously know, it’s not a blind fact that we’re going to get some criticism. Stuff like that, we’ve got to let it roll of our backs and know that this week that we’re going to come out and not play scared and not be timid to get beat. Do you feel like the defense’s struggles are just a case of there being a few little things being done incorrectly?Yeah. Ten people probably did their job, but one person slacked off by one step or one person did it wrong and then they got exposed.With your dad being in the ring of honor and the Texas A&M game being in the new Cowboys Stadium, how special is that for you?It’s going to be pretty cool. I always tease (my dad), I got to do some-thing he didn’t do: play in this stadium. He’s in the ring of honor, (won a) Super Bowl, was an All-Pro, Pro-Bowler. It’s kind of cool that, me being his son, it’s like a generation thing. He was the past in the old stadium and now I get to play in the fi rst year of that new Cowboys Stadium, so I’m pretty excited. Hopefully we can go down there and beat these Aggies.(Editor’s Note: Harris’ father, Cliff, was an four-time fi rst-team All-Pro safety for the Dallas Cowboys and was a part of their Super Bowl XII victory in 1978. Harris was a six-time Pro Bowler and a fi nalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004. In the same year, he was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor.)Is your dad pretty involved, does he give you a lot of advice?Yeah, he gives me advice week-to-week. He asks me how the fi lms went. He comes to every game and watches and gives me tips about what I can do better. But, it’s little subtle things. He doesn’t try to change my whole game up, because he knows if I’m playing at this level, I’m doing something right. He helps me mentally and (gives me) pointers to help me incorporate it into my game. He’s good at it. I welcome it. He understands that I have coaches. He doesn’t tell me to go tell Coach Robinson, ‘I need to play this coverage better because my dad says so.’ It’s never been like that in junior high, high school or college. What type of advice does he give?A lot of (his advice) is mental. He says to read the quarterback, kind of mess with the quarterback. Get an emotion out of the quarterback, see who his favorites are, where he’s doing, know his body language kind of stuff. It’s not a coverage thing as it a ‘take one step left and then go right’ kind of thing, mess with people.Being from Richardson, Texas are you getting a lot of phone calls wanting tickets to the game?Yeah, I always joke with my family, I was like ‘I’m going to turn my phone off the week I play A&M because everyone’s probably going to call.’ People were already asking for A&M (tickets) in the summer-time. It’s going to be a crazy game. Did you grow up watching a lot of Cowboys game footage of your dad? I was raised watching his fi lms and NFL Films and greatest games and stuff, so I know all about it. Have you had the opportunity to be around some of his team-mates growing up?Oh yeah. Roger Staubach lived down the street from us and he would have little Cowboy basketball games. (I’ve been around) him, Tony Dorsett and when I was really little Coach (Tom) Landry. I met him when I was really little. But a bunch (of players), you’ve got Bob Lilly,

Lee Roy Jordan, Drew Pearson. I know a bunch of the guys, they also stay in touch. Charlie Waters and (my dad) still work together today, so I’m pretty involved with a bunch of the old guys like that.Was there a Cowboy, other than your dad that was your favorite player growing up?Well my brother’s named after Drew Pearson and I always liked that “Hail Mary” catch and the story of it, when Roger Staubach’s Catholic and he said the Hail Mary and threw it up. Charlie (Waters) was probably the closest Cowboy (to the family). I ran track and I ran with his son, Cliff, who was born on my dad’s birthday. Charlie and Roger are probably my two that I was closest with growing up.If you get into a bar fi ght, which teammate do you want to have your back?Lavunce Askew. He’s got some golden gloves. He used to box when he was a little kid and he’s a defensive lineman, and strong. He can throw those things around. (Editor’s Note: Askew is a 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive tackle.)Coke or Pepsi?Pepsi, because when I was little my grandpa raised me on Pepsi over Coke.Who does Coach Robinson tend to yell at the most during practice?Elton Ford. He’s just young and (Coach Robinson) likes to mess with Elton. What is your dream vacation destination?Probably Costa Rica. Everyone would probably say Hawaii, but (Costa Rica) is tropical and it’s a little more exclusive if you want to get away and have a good time privately.If you can invite any three people, dead or alive, to dinner, who would you invite?Geeze. Uh…George Washington…Tom Landry and George Bush. Who is the best offensive player that you’ve faced while at Arkansas?(Georgia All-American receiver) A.J. Green might be up there as one of the best…or…yeah, probably A.J. Green.What music are you listening to right now?Well, I listen to everything, but the last thing I listened to was something by the Eagles. I will literally listen to everything, classical, classic rock, rap, rock, country.Who is Arkansas’ biggest rival?LSU, because it’s the Battle of the Boot. If you ruin someone’s na-tional championship hopes, you might have a good rivalry going.

matt harrisRichardson, Texas6’2” 192 lbs2009: 19 tackles in three games